Washington : You have been looking out for a new microwave oven that would suit your budget and requirements but the simple quest becomes quite an ordeal over a period of time.

After reading dozens of product reviews and asking your friends and acquaintnces, you finally conclude the deal, only to fret endlessly over whether it was the right choice?

If so, new research from Florida State University may shed some light on your inability to make a decision that you'll be happy with.

Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at the university has long been fascinated with individuals identified among psychologists as "maximizers." Maximizers tend to obsess over decisions - big or small - and then fret about their choices later. "Satisficers," on the other hand, tend to make a decision and then live with it.

Ehrlinger co-authored the study with her graduate student and doctoral candidate Erin Sparks and colleague Richard Eibach, her counterpart at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

It examines whether "maximizers show less commitment to their choices than satisficers in a way that leaves them less satisfied with their choices."

"Because maximizers want to be certain they have made the right choice," the authors contend, "they are less likely to fully commit to a decision." And most likely, they are less happy in their everyday lives.

Update: 18-December-2011