Hobson's Choice

Now, how would you feel if someone gave you the option that you can choose any color of a car model as long as it is black in color? Of course you will think that it's not fair and that you are being given no choice, no free will to choose at all. This situation when you are left with the option of 'either you take it or leave it', is called the 'Hobson's Choice'. This is a term which was named after a person called Thomas Hobson in the 16th century. Although this is called a 'choice', it is no choice at all. Given below are some more information about the origin and a few examples.

Do I Have a Choice?

Quite often in the English language, you will hear the phrase, 'Either you take or you leave it'; and when you are given this option, you have to choose the lesser of the two evils. Although the term says 'choice', in reality it is no choice at all. The person who is given this choice, is made to feel as if he has a choice, when actually he does not. Take Henry Ford's quote for example where he says that the customers can take any color of car as long as the color is black. So what does this indicate; that the consumer has the option of taking only black color model or no car at all. People are asked to choose between two things; something or nothing. For example you are being given the option of either choosing bacon and eggs for breakfast or eggs and bacon; now what do you choose?

Sometimes, when you are asked to choose between two unpleasant things, even then you are in a dilemma. In most Hollywood movies, I am sure you must have heard of the quite common dialog when a person is mugged, "Your life or your money?" Now who would give up his life for his money, but at the same time who would like to part with his hard-earned money. In short you are not given any option and finally you have to end up giving up something (and most of the time it is money). This decision-making process is quite often used in the marketing field too. Now that you have understood what this 'choice' is all about, let us now see where and how did this term actually originate.

Origin

The origin of the term goes back to the 16th century. It was named after a livery stable owner called Thomas Hobson, in Cambridge, England. He had over 40 horses in his stable and some of them were of the best breeds. Obviously if his customers were given the option of choosing any horse that they wanted, they would choose the best and then that horse would be overused. So he devised a plan where he had a stable rotation and asked his customers to choose between the horse that was closest to the stable door, or no horse at all. Of course his customers had no option but to be happy with whatever horse they got. Thus, this gave birth to the term 'Hobson's Choice'.

Almost every one uses it in their daily lives, it's just that we never realize it. Next time when you give an unreasonable option to someone or if anyone gives you an unreasonable choice, you will know that it's the Hobson's Choice.