Choice overload
Etymology
A 20th-century term from psychology and behavioral economics, popularized by Barry Schwartz’s "paradox of choice." "Overload" borrows the language of electrical circuits — too much current for the system to carry — applied to the mind’s limited capacity to weigh options.
noun phrase · /CHOYSS OH-vur-lohd/
The paralysis and dissatisfaction that can result when a person faces too many options.
What it names
A counterintuitive trap — that more freedom to choose can make people worse off — useful wherever menus, plans, or products multiply.
Example
Faced with forty nearly identical retirement funds, many employees fell into choice overload and enrolled in none.
Related idea
Choice overload is the freezing effect of too many options at once; decision fatigue is the depletion that comes from making many choices over time — one is a jam, the other an exhaustion.