Would you like to learn an interesting bit of magic? It’s a way to improve the value of even the most mundane thing without changing anything at all about it. Watch the trick:
You walk up to a young relative with two different pieces of candy. You show them both to the child, and then tell them that they get the one on the left; they don’t get a choice. They’ll frown, I guarantee it. They didn’t even know they were going to get any candy ten seconds earlier, and they’re still getting a piece of candy they like, but they’ll frown all the same. Now, when you see the frown, say: “I changed my mind. You can pick which piece you want.”
Poof, magic!
They’ll beam with joy. They might even pick the piece you originally offered! But because they chose it, it will triple in the happiness it brings.
Agency itself brings joy. You can use this to your advantage in all sorts of situations. Need to motivate some employees to do an unpleasant task? Give them a choice between two unpleasant tasks and whichever one they pick, they’ll be thrilled not to be doing the other one. I’ll give my kids a list of seven chores and then say “You can pick any one of these you want and you don’t have to do that one at all! You can skip it and I’ll do it!” They’re thrilled. And instead of having miserable kids grumping their way through seven chores, I have happy kids frolicking their way through six. That’s a solid deal by any measure.
Humans love freedom. It’s in our bones. Even a small measure of it helps the medicine go down, so to speak. So let people choose, whenever you can.
The Opportunity Machine 