There are always the big three no matter what you're talking about. Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge. HP, Dell, and Lenovo. Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian. The lists can go on and on, but it is a fact that pretty much every topic, every "thing", or every company, there are the top 3. Why 3? Why not 4? Why not 2? On House Hunters, American Idol, or The Bachelor, there are always a final 3. To make it to the final 3 means you are in amazing company and are among the absolute BEST of whatever it is. To give you some of my top 3's:
Top 3 Music Bands/Groups
- DC Talk (Contemporary Christian Artist Group)
- Metallica ("Heavy" Metal Group)
- Gaither Vocal Band (Gospel Group)
Top 3 Vehicles (Personally Owned)
- Land Rover Discovery
- Toyota 4-Runner
- Mini Cooper Countryman S ALL4
Top 3 Foods
- Fettuccini Alfredo (with Chicken or Shrimp)
- Chicken Wings
- Cheeseburger (homemade)
We as humans are conditioned to process data in a logical fashion. Let me go into some detail here about "we as humans". In the current day in age of technology, humans are subjected to an overload and sometimes overwhelming amount of information. In the distant past, information was not only slow, but it was scarce. When reading about historical events, you find that knowledge was a very well-protected secret at times (we won't go into "why", but you know). Later down the line, the powers that be couldn't suppress the information, so they simply changed what information was important that would help them retain their power (again, we won't go into "why"). Eventually, humans learned how to document information in more reproducible ways, thus reporting was invented. Since that time, we have reported and documented just about everything. But, in the information age (as we currently are in), information is being constantly created, updated, and shared. So much so that we end up with information overload many times and causes information exhaustion (there will be a future ToTD about this).
So why 3? Well, I believe it's the way our brain works. It's partially the attention-deficit in all of us. When we compile a list of something, it's easy to compare 3. It's easy to compare one thing to another and then add one more to see if it's any better or worse than the other two. Adding any more, and your brain, and you have trouble comparing because your brain either wants to compare 2 or 3 and that leaves one out. For example, go grab any three objects near you. Place them in a line in front of you. Observe them closely. Take a minute, I'll wait...(notice the 3 dots) What's happening is your brain looks at each one individually, and then naturally, when you navigate visually to the next object, you subconsciously notice the differences between the previous objects. This continues as you look at the third object. When you go back to the left or right observing the objects, your thought process is to compare it to the previous. This works if you have three objects. Now, add a fourth. When you do, your stress levels will increase slightly because your brain is working in overdrive trying to perform this task of comparing one to another. What happens, though, is that you inadvertently forget the details of the third object due to the inclusion of the fourth.
It's psychological and there's very little that can be done to improve your brain's ability to process a fourth (or more) object. It's simply easier to compare between 2 and 3 objects. But again, why 3? Why not just 2? Well, that's where modern technology and modern marketing have trained our brains. From my memory, I believe this started back in the late 1800's or early 1900's. There were three powerful oil companies, Standard Oil, Union Oil, and Pure Oil. In the 1920's, there were world powers, The US, Germany, and England. A more modern "Big 3" would be USA, China, and Russia. The difference being world powers from a political or military perspective and the more modern emphasis on monetary or economic powers. In the 60's, it was all about military again and one aspect of that was the famous "Space Race". Russia, Germany, and the US were all the top 3 space programs that were vying for space superiority. In the 70's, there was a big marketing campaign between the big 3 automotive manufacturers in the US, Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge. In the 80's and 90's, there were 3 big television station outlets, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Since then, technology has dominated the marketing game and things like computer hardware, cellular service providers, and software companies. Some of these big 3's are:
- Apple, Microsoft, Google
- Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile
- HP, Dell, and Lenovo
So you can see that the origins of our concept of 3's is psychological, but has morphed into a systematic marketing ploy to constantly have 3 of the top businesses in any industry. The next time you are shopping for anything, remember, you will probably narrow your search down to a final 3.