History Main / FreedomFromChoice

* ''WebVideo/NotJustBikes'': Jason mentions, with deep annoyance, how certain parts of North America seem to be full of people who are furious at the idea of being given a choice to walk, bike or take public transit rather than have to drive in traffic arguing that their freedom is being taken away by being offered infrastructure that gives them more choices (without removing cars from the equation).

* PlayedForDrama in ''WebAnimation/StarterSquad'', where various Pokémon under [[spoiler:the [[GeneralRipper Caterpie leader]]]] only accept their rule so that they won't have to make their own decisions in life. This also helps [[spoiler:Squirtle]] recognize that another Pokémon claiming to act on the gods' behalf is doing the exact same thing, pushing responsibility for the lives he'd taken up until that point to a higher power under the justification of following orders.

* Perhaps not surprisingly, this was a part of the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis']] ideology. They replaced freedom of choice with the ''Führerprinzip'' (leader principle), i.e. obedience to higher authority, with the Fuhrer's word being above all law (this was partly an outgrowth of Germany unifying with Prussia at its center, with Prussia's strong military culture seeping into the rest of the country, especially through education). It was thus felt that if people were obeying orders, nothing they did could be wrong. Therefore when Nazi war criminals [[JustFollowingOrders used this defense at Nuremberg]] it was not entirely self-serving or cognitive dissonance-they ''really believed that.''
* According to Wikipedia's article on "Freedom of Choice", a social experiment determined that there's kind of a "sweet spot" when it comes to freedom and the ability to make choices. While in general, the ability to make choices (and to make choices that lead to more choices) is considered a good thing, having an abundance of choice requires both a thorough understanding of the choices and potential consequences and the ability to cope with consequences. As the number of pairwise comparisons the brain has to make increases quadratically with each additional option available (with only three options the brain has to make three comparisons, a fourth ups it to six, a fifth requires ten, and so on), people who lack either of those may find themselves happier within ''this'' trope, where decisions are made ''for'' them as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice overchoice]] seeps in. There is an experiment involved a supermarket issuing coupons for jam. The same supermarket, the same price, the same days of the week; the only difference was the number of different flavors of jam for sale on the shelf - one week had 3 flavors, another week had 24. Total sales of jam were significantly lower the week there were 24 flavors on the shelf because trying to determine the best choice out of 24 options was much more mentally tiresome for shoppers than picking the best out of 3 options, and those shoppers just ended up not buying any jam at all.
* Some of the supporters of [[StayInTheKitchen traditional gender roles and expectations]] (in particular, certain religious leaders), say that women are "oppressed" because they are (supposedly) overwhelmed with all the choices they have, or are unsatisfied with life because they picked options other than what's (supposedly) [[AppealToNature "natural."]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''WebVideo/NotJustBikes'': Jason mentions, with deep annoyance, how certain parts of North America seem to be full of people who are furious at the idea of being given a choice to walk, bike or take public transit rather than have to drive in traffic arguing that their freedom is being taken away by being offered infrastructure that gives them more choices (without removing cars from the equation).
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Compare and Contrast with DesperatelyNeedsOrders where the character not wanting to make decisions is not out of preference but rather cause they're straight up ''unable to''.

* ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'' has a bit of this, although it's shown that the lot-drawing doesn't actually matter (it's touted as a sort of sacred infallible system, but people can swap their drawings).

* A common way for Authoritarian rulers and Totalitarian dictators to justify their rule regardless of whether the general populace would like it or not.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'''s climactic story quest, "The New War", [[spoiler:the Sentients [[TheBadGuyWins overrun the Origin System]] and install Ballas as the ruler of the empire-slash-cult of Narmer, enforced through [[MindControlDevice mind-controlling Narmer Veils]]. At the beginning of his VillainousBreakdown, as he [[ControlFreak rages over the existence of the few people still able to oppose him]] despite now ruling a system-spanning empite, Ballas furiously claims that the people of the system "''wanted'' to kneel" as they sought the comfort of being told what to think.]]

* ''LightNovel/BeingAbleToEditSkillsInAnotherWorldIGainedOpWaifus'' has a slave harem that's perfectly happy to have their "husband" make all the decisions. When they were free agents, their lives were crap. With him in charge, they're happy and basically live in luxury.

* In ''Literature/TheHeraldsOfValdemar'', 13-year-old Talia is offered her 'choice' in an ArrangedMarriage -- a younger man's first wife or an older man's underwife. One of her own father's underwives tells her that the second option is nice because she'll never have to make a decision.

While freedom from choice is morally neutral, a character who takes the desire for freedom from choice too far might [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope become destructive]] as he goes off the deep end pondering ([[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans and justifying]]) TheEvilsOfFreeWill. The AssimilationPlot is related, as the characters touting it sometimes presents it as the ultimate escape from having to choose.