Conventional wisdom says choosing from large numbers of options is overwhelming. Scholars call this “choice overload,” and declare that it hinders good decision-making: when faced with many options, we take a stab in the dark or simply walk away.

The burgeoning field of analytics was made famous by the book and movie, “Moneyball,” which showed how the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox gained a significant advantage over other baseball teams in the early-to-mid 2000s by their use of statistical formulas.