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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 6,952 ratings · 576 reviews

In the spirit of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, ap...more In the spirit of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions--both big and small--have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice--the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish--becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice--from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs--has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.(less)

Paperback, 265 pages

Published January 18th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published 2003)

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Sep 03, 2007 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like those kinds of books that Malcolm Gladwell writes

Shelves: self-help, non-fiction

I have a lot of issues with this book but, to be fair, I actually reference it in conversation all the time. I think it's worth a skim but most of it's kind of common sense.

Schwartz makes approximately seven interesting points but he makes them repeatedly for some 230-odd pages. Sometimes he makes the same point in different ways and sometimes he makes the same point in the same way. During an especially repetitive section, I actually suspected that there'd been a printing error and I'd accident...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maybe I don't read enough Psychology, but I thought this book was fantastic. Swarthmore Psychology professor Barry Schwartz's basic thesis is that the world is divided into two types of person: maximizers, who want to find the absolute best option, and satisficers who want to find something that is good enough and not worry that something better might be out there. He also links maximizing to the high and increasing incidence of clinical depression in the developed world and believes that satisf...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Nicholas Karpuk rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: You

"The Paradox of Choice" is a simple book in many ways. It shows that there's concrete data backing up many of the "well duh" platitudes people regularly dismiss while making terrible life choices.

The book was a revelation for me, since it related a lot to the culture of worry and second guessing I grew up with. Part exploration of our society of excessive options and the misery they seem to cause our inhabitants, and part self-help guide, it's the opposite of "True Enough", it's a book that rath...more

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Mar 23, 2008 Edward rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really important book for me. Refers to some great research. Some highlights:

Prologue:
- “choice no longer liberates, but debilitates” -“choice overload”
- we’d be better off if we embraced some limits on choice instead of rebelling, by seeking “good enough” rather than the best, by lowering our expectations about our decisions, by making our decisions nonreversible, and by not comparing ourselves to others as much

I. When We Choose
1. Let’s Go Shopping
- 30% of people bought from the small sample o...more

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Dec 08, 2007 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those interested in behavior and decision-making

Shelves: general-nonfiction

In The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz focuses on two basic ways of making decisions: maximizing (trying to make the very best possible choice) and satisficing (making a choice that will do well enough, all things considered).

In the past, I've thought of these two approaches in terms of the decisions that need to be made, not in terms of the person making them. For example, when picking a spouse or a house, one may want to take a lot of time and make the best possible decision. When selecting a rest...more

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Jan 29, 2008 Jeff rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: worm-reading-list

The Paradox of Choice is a 236 page treatises on why too much choice can be debilitating. It can be summed up in its sub-sub-title: "Why the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction." (Why a book needs a sub-title under the sub-title beats me). The problem is that we spend too much time and energy trying to make choices that in the grand scheme of things don't matter that much. I agree with the big idea, but I hated the book and here's why:

Schwartz could have made his point in a fine three...more

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Aug 12, 2007 Travis rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Paradox of Choice includes dozens of insights and studies that theorize that Americans are less happy in part because of their over abundance of choice. The first 50 pages set up this theory in exhausting detail. I was ready to give up. After passing through the lengthy intro, I found the studies to support something I have been thinking about for several years. When I'm faced with many choices - I frequently choose not to choose anything. I also seem much less satisfied with my choice after...more

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Jun 07, 2007 Hilary rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book explained so much about the way I behave -- I am a total maximizer, meaning that whenever I have a choice to make, I always want the absolute best option, even if researching to discover the best option is hard and time-consuming. Instead, I could be a satisficer: someone who picks the option that satisfies all their requirements, without worrying whether something better is out there. Schwartz shows persuasively that maximizers are less happy than satisficers. This book helped me unde...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Mangoo rated it 5 of 5 stars

La proliferazione apparentemente illimitata di opzioni che la societa' occidentale offre attualmente in risposta a scelte - banali e serie - sarebbe forse stata un sogno per le precedenti generazioni, che vi avrebbero visto la materializzazione di un loro sogno. Schwartz argomenta al contrario che dietro questa liberta' si nascondono pesanti insidie.
Certamente avere a disposizione piu' di una opzione per ogni scelta e' un bene, ed ha permesso di ottenere un miglioramento sostanziale in molti asp...more La proliferazione apparentemente illimitata di opzioni che la societa' occidentale offre attualmente in risposta a scelte - banali e serie - sarebbe forse stata un sogno per le precedenti generazioni, che vi avrebbero visto la materializzazione di un loro sogno. Schwartz argomenta al contrario che dietro questa liberta' si nascondono pesanti insidie.
Certamente avere a disposizione piu' di una opzione per ogni scelta e' un bene, ed ha permesso di ottenere un miglioramento sostanziale in molti aspetti della civilta'.
Senonche', un eccesso di liberta' sta probabilmente portando, a fronte di un miglior risultato oggettivo, una minore soddisfazione soggettiva. In sostanza, la rimozione dei vincoli sulle scelte fa aumentare a dismisura le aspettative del risultato della scelta e rende ingiustificato l'ottenimento di ogni risultato che non sia ottimo. Quando questo non si verifica - cioe' nella quasi totalita' dei casi - l'insoddisfazione, condita da rimpianti, rimorso, ed eventualmente sfiducia, disistima e depressione, corrode il risultato e vanifica, a tutti gli effetti pratici, i benefici soggettivi della scelta.
Si scopre poi che scegliere non e' cosi' semplice come si pensa, per via di euristiche intuitive quanto fuorvianti che spesso si mettono in atto e che sono sfruttate dal marketing - ancoraggio, disponibilita', prospettiva, dotazione e molto altro.
Secondo Schwartz, per tutti questi motivi al giorno d'oggi conviene cercare di non cedere alla tentazione di voler ottenere il miglior risultato possibile - ammesso che non sia una utopia - e accontentarsi, valorizzando quello che si ha e limitando l'impegno della scelta a poche faccende veramente importanti, utilizzando regole, abitudini e routines per le altre. Cosi' si salva tempo da dedicare a se stessi e agli altri.

E' un testo molto chiaro e semplice, ma ricchissimo di osservazioni statistiche interessanti e controintuitive. Vi si trovano facilmente rimandi (non espliciti) a Kierkegaard (Aut-aut), Fromm (Fuga dalla liberta'), Baricco (I barbari), Freud e Nietzsche.
Da leggere e rimuginare per soffermarsi e spazzare via molto rumore.

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Feb 08, 2009 Chris Herdt rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read this for a couple years now, and I've been using terminology from it ("maximizers" and "satisficers") since then. I've read about the book several places and heard interviews with the author on the radio.

The premise is that modern people (read: middle-to-upper class Americans) have more choices now than ever before, and that more choice is making us, collectively (but not necessarily individually), less happy rather than more happy. This is due to a variety of factors,...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Gordon rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that, once you've read it, permanently shifts your perspective. It made me think altogether differently about the value of having MORE choices. As the author argues, your sense of well-being increases when you go from having no choices to having a few choices. But as you go from having a few choices to having many choices, your happiness typically goes down. Why? Because it's time-consuming and stressful to choose between all those alternatives! You become fearful of m...more

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May 13, 2013 Erika RS rated it 3 of 5 stars

Schwartz describes how having an excessive amount of choice in our lives can bring unhappiness and suffering. He describes some of the many sources of choices in modern life, some psychological factors relating to choice making, how choices can cause unhappiness, and some techniques for dealing with this unhappiness.

First of all, Schwartz emphasizes that choice is good. It is vital to happiness. However, he claims that in the here and now of the 21st century US, we are overwhelmed with choices,...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Chloe rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

The premise of this book did interest me. What I thought was going to be a book that analyzed how the abundances of choice or at least the appearance of choice affects our perception of freedom, satisfaction, and enjoyment, turned out to be a repetitive book that sounds like an older guy complaining why there are so many different types of beans in the supermarket.

"I just want a can of beans! Why are there so many types! Just give me beans!"

Honestly, at one point he does appear to bemoan the var...more The premise of this book did interest me. What I thought was going to be a book that analyzed how the abundances of choice or at least the appearance of choice affects our perception of freedom, satisfaction, and enjoyment, turned out to be a repetitive book that sounds like an older guy complaining why there are so many different types of beans in the supermarket.

"I just want a can of beans! Why are there so many types! Just give me beans!"

Honestly, at one point he does appear to bemoan the variety of beans that are available in the common supermarket. Not really the kind of abundance of choice I was expecting to be inhibiting our every day lives. He goes on to provide more anecdotes about how hard he is finding it to adjust to so much choice now available in the modern market place. He describes the agony of picking out a pair of jeans, since there are so many different cuts available since clothing designers have figured out that there is more than one body type.

And it is his approach to buying jeans that honestly made me loose respect in his approach to the whole subject of choice. What he does is he sees that there are so many different cuts, he can't decide, therefor he buys all the different types, tries them on at home to figure out which one work for him. And there I was thinking, "Isn't that what dressing rooms are for?" He just made the whole process more convoluted and difficult than necessary, which made me think what other concepts did he just add an unnecessary level of complexity to.

I really find it hard to think that it is better for a clothing store to ignore different body types and to just make clothes that fits one ideal body type to make one shopping experience easier. The truth is, everyone has to go through finding out the cut of jeans that work best for you, and then after that point, you just remember and pick the cut you know fits you after that experience. Someone really doesn't reevaluate and try on all the different cuts every single time they go to buy jeans. Just like people know their size, people know their cut. Unless there is a size 6 who tries sizes 0 - 14 only to realize that a size 6 still is the size that fits her the best.

He even tried to argue that having more than one place to vacation to was a bad thing. That deciding made the experiences significantly less enjoyable. I don't know about him but once I have decided and I am on vacation, I don't really think about where I could have been but where I am currently. A vacation is a vacation, it is kind of hard to ruin them.

This author could have made very valid points, but many times the anecdotes he provided made him sound like a confused, annoyed aging man who wants things to be like the good old days, his examples and scenarios weren't good at all (picking out beans, buying jeans, or where to go on a vacation, etc), and also he would provide very little evidence to back up the claims that choice was making us more miserable.(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Lana rated it 3 of 5 stars

"As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: Choice overload can...set you up for unrealistically high expectation and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis." (inside cover flap)

One thing I gained from the book was a better awareness of how much time I spend making decisions that don't matter much. "A chooser relfects on what's important to hi...more "As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: Choice overload can...set you up for unrealistically high expectation and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis." (inside cover flap)

One thing I gained from the book was a better awareness of how much time I spend making decisions that don't matter much. "A chooser relfects on what's important to him or her in life, what's important about this particular decision, and what the short- and long-range consequences of the decision may be. . . .Decisions don't always come at us with signs indicating their relative importance prominently attached. . . .We must decide...when a choice really matters and focus our energies there, even if it means letting many other opportunities pass us by." (p.75.104)

He cited studies about mice and 'learned helplessness' to show that "our most fundamental sense of well-being crucially depends on our having the ability to exert control over our environment and recognizing that we do." (p102-3) He cited a study done on 3 month old infants who could activate lights and dancing in a mobile above them and above the infant in the crib next to them when they turned their heads on the pillows. All the infants enjoyed the mobile, but the infants that controlled the action had much longer lasting entertainment from it. The ones given the "free ride" lost interest quickly. (p. 204)

He talked about 'adaptation.' We will quickly adapt to something that made us happy until it no longer brings us the same satisfaction. We can counter this by 1) eing grateful for what we have,(p.178) and not buying everything we can afford--ie: if you have steak every night, or a new blouse every week, it no longer is that exciting. (p.187)

"Curtail social comparisons . . .focus on what makes YOU happy, and what gives meaning to YOUR life" rather than what others have or do." (p234-5)

"Learn to love constraints. . .Society provides rules, standards, and norms for making choices, and individual experiences creates habits. By deciding to follow a rule (for example, always wear a seat belt), we avoid having to make a deliberate decision again and again. This kind of rule-following frees up time and attention. . .eliminates daily hassles. . .Choice within constraints, freedom within limits, is what enables [us] to imagine a host of marvelous possibilities." (p.235-236)

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Jan 05, 2013 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

**When choice becomes tyrannical**

Choice is a good thing, right?

What says self-determination and autonomy more than our being able to walk into any grocery story and be offered the choice of (note: the following data were dutifully collected by the author during a trip to his local grocery store): 85 different crackers, 285 varieties of cookies (21 of which are chocolate-chip cookies), 13 different sport drinks, 65 box drinks, 75 types of teas and adult drinks, 95 different snack options, 61 va...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Tyler rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've read a fair number of books in this genre now, and this one suffers by comparison. (Funny in a way since that's a topic Schwartz talks about in the book.) I found the first hundred pages or so to be dull, a rehashing of topics and studies I've seen referenced before.

I specifically struggled with the author's main point about maximizers and satisficers. In fact I took the quiz and scored higher on the maximizer scale than he says anyone in the study did. Really? And since I'm generally a hap...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The Paradox of Choice" is one of those books I have been meaning to read since heading Barry Schwartz's TED talk several years ago. The idea that too many options leads to unhappiness and inaction is a purvasive one. A recent TED Blog article highlights several instances of this phenomena. It is not so simple though. As new research suggests choice is not as bad as believed, this idea has started to fall out of favor .

Much of the book will be familiar to someone who reads popular books on psych...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars

Author: Barry Schwartz
Title: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less
Description: Schwartz wondered why, when we have more choices than ever before, are we so conflicted when making choices? Shouldn’t we all be much happier than in the past, when our choices were so limited? Note: the book is not necessarily about how to make decisions, but about what happens psychologically when people are faced with multiple options.
Source: Penguin
Writing style: Schwartz takes a load of research and puts it in...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Naomi King rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Since I minister in a religious movement where demands for choices and customized religious experiences can sometimes seem like our purpose for being, I was particularly curious about Schwartz's research and what he found. His work is part of the larger psychological challenge by Martin Seligman for psychology to better understand health and serve that, and not to be so focused on disease (creating a situation where the definition of "health" was based on assumptions that might turn out not to b...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I recently picked up Barry Schwartz’s fascinating book, The Paradox of Choice and basically read it in three days. I had read an excerpt somewhere (Slate? The New York Times Magazine?), where he was explaining how in countries (like Japan and America for example) where there were significant increases in income, the level of happiness had not risen accordingly. He surmised from this that when you have basic levels of prosperity you don’t necessarily increase your happiness and other factors like...more I recently picked up Barry Schwartz’s fascinating book, The Paradox of Choice and basically read it in three days. I had read an excerpt somewhere (Slate? The New York Times Magazine?), where he was explaining how in countries (like Japan and America for example) where there were significant increases in income, the level of happiness had not risen accordingly. He surmised from this that when you have basic levels of prosperity you don’t necessarily increase your happiness and other factors like strong familial connections were more representative of happiness across culture. He builds up the evidence of having too many choices often perplexes people and make them less happy, and often less likely to buy things. He identifies several reason why the free market economy and personal freedom sometimes have the opposite effect from which conventional wisdom would suggest-too many choices can be overwhelming for some people. He analyzes concepts like Opportunity costs, where people evaluate missed opportunities that would have come from a different choice. This happens to me a lot when I am ordering at a restaurant. He also looks at how people tend to be “maximizers” (looking for the best) or “satisficers” (people who will accept “good enough”). Sometimes people are both depending on what they are choosing. Which I agree with, I feel that I am largely a “satisficers”, but can have moments of choosing like a “maximizer.” Some of the other factors that lead to suffering from decisions include regret, disappointment through adaptation, and comparison. He gives a list of 11 things that can help make choices more satisfactory: (1. Choose When to Choose 2. Be a Chooser, Not a Picker 3. Satisfice More and Maximize Less 4. Think About the Opportunity Costs of Opportunity Costs 5. Make Your Decisions Nonreversible 6. Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude” 7. Regret Less 8. Anticipate Adaptation 9. Control Expectations 10. Curtail Social Comparison 11. Learn to Love Constraints). It was a thought provoking and inspiring book.

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Aug 22, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this book, Barry Schwartz summarizes research about the difficulties of decision-making. The highly effective story he tells explains - possibly? probably? - much of the stress, anxiety, regret, and feelings of being overwhelmed experienced by many people in modern society. Our obsessive need for choices is closely related to the values of autonomy, independence, self-determination. But the more choice we have, the more responsible we are (or at least feel) for the outcomes of our decisions....more

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Aug 19, 2011 Kristi Thielen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Barry Schwartz is chiefly concerned with explaining that an abundance of opportunities - especially for material goods - can actually decrease happiness and that "maximizers," - people in relentless pursuit of the best of all things and agonized by the fear that their decision might be the wrong one - would be better off as "satisficers," - people who discipline themselves to consider only a limited range of options and then make a firm decision and get on with life.

Learn to accept "good enough...more

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Jun 12, 2011 karl and mandy brown rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: karl, mandy

Mandy read The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less before me and recommended that I read it. Was it fitting that I read it? Perhaps yes. While the book made apparent the cost of the overload of choice we are facing in society, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less receives only a 'meh' or 'so-so' ranking in my humble opinion.

I liked the references to individual studies highlighting some of the contradictions in how we make choices. But, for each of those references, there's no way to know the...more Mandy read The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less before me and recommended that I read it. Was it fitting that I read it? Perhaps yes. While the book made apparent the cost of the overload of choice we are facing in society, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less receives only a 'meh' or 'so-so' ranking in my humble opinion.

I liked the references to individual studies highlighting some of the contradictions in how we make choices. But, for each of those references, there's no way to know the validity of the individual study. How many people were involved in the study? Was statistical significance achieved? Which reminds me... the way they used footnotes in the book was dumb. There were no numbers. Instead, the relevant phrase was repeated at the end of the book in the notes section. The reader had no way of knowing of a block of text had a footnote related to it by looking at the page he or she was reading.

It also irks me when an author inaccurately uses evolution to make a point. Schwartz says we have difficulty with choices because early humans had only limited options: live in a cave or not live in a cave; eat or don't eat. Was he there with those early humans to know what choices they faced or how they made decisions? It's mere speculation and a waste of paper.

As with Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Personal Vision, Schwartz provides a conclusion that says 'live this way,' based on the arguments presented throughout the book. But, that method has not been validated through any scientific research.

I think the recommendations I will use - and Mandy and I have started doing - are the following:
* limit options: instead of considering all the options available, pick two, three, or four and compare only those
* practice an attitude of gratefulness: Mandy and I started sharing five things each of us is thankful for at the end of the day (not every day, but every so often).
* good enough is good enough: the solution I pick doesn't need to be perfect.

Was it a Good Read? It was a read. I feel more educated. Now onto the next thing.(less)

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Jun 01, 2011 Candie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz

More choices, as a society, we would say would make life better, right? We have more options than ever before about what to eat, what to wear, where to live, what to put in our houses, etc. However, Barry Schwartz argues that more choice does not equal more happiness. Although we think more choices makes us happy, it actually leaves room for greater feelings of dissatisfaction, regret, and feeling overwhelmed. It has come to the point whe...more The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz

More choices, as a society, we would say would make life better, right? We have more options than ever before about what to eat, what to wear, where to live, what to put in our houses, etc. However, Barry Schwartz argues that more choice does not equal more happiness. Although we think more choices makes us happy, it actually leaves room for greater feelings of dissatisfaction, regret, and feeling overwhelmed. It has come to the point where it might be easier to not make a choice about anything at all.

Schwartz describes two methods of strategy in choice behavior. A Maximizer is someone who will seek and accept only the best in what they choose. They will go to every store in town to see which one has the best deal on that computer, they will spend hours flipping through every channel to see which one has the best program. A Satisficer, on the other hand, will accept choices that are “good enough” and not worry about the chance that there was something out there that might have been better. No one is a complete maximizer or saticficer, and the behavior should be viewed on a continuum. Maximizers are more likely to engage in comparisons, take longer to make a decision, compare their decisions to others, experience regret, spend more time thinking about hypothetical choices, feel less positive about their decision, savor positive events less, take a longer time to recover from a bad experience, and spend more time ruminating in decisions than saticficers. Schwartz stresses that although maximizers might be getting the best deal in the objective sense, it is the subjective experience that affects their well-being, and is the more important one to focus on.

Take Home Message: Responsibility, Control, and Expectations

Schwartz contends that although we live in a culture that values personal responsibility and control over one’s life, it also leaves more open to blame on the individual, thereby leaving feelings of dissatisfaction and regret. If we aren’t happy, it is logical to believe it is our fault. This has especially become more relevant with advanced technology and materialism in our culture. Schwartz is not saying that life should be without choice, but that there should be choice with constraints or freedom within limits. Additionally, our expectations about the choices we make have also been a contributing factor to possible unhappiness. Expectations come from making comparisons, and comparisons are a type of standard. When things do not meet our standard, we are dissatisfied. What is the solution to this problem? Low expectations, says Schwartz. If a choice is not so great then it leaves you with little disappointment, and if it goes beyond your expectation you are happily surprised.

Outstanding book and perspective into how too much choice effects decision-making behavior.
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Jan 08, 2011 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: students taking social cognition

Shelves: reviewed, x-2004s

We are horrible at predicting what we want.

Last year I took a class in social cognition, and one of the experiments we learned about involved a group of students picking some snacks for a period of three days. One group, if I remember correctly, said their favorite and got assigned that candy; the other got to pick their choices from a selection of snacks. Surprisingly, the group that selected their snacks was more unhappy than the first group because they anticipated a desire for variety based...more We are horrible at predicting what we want.

Last year I took a class in social cognition, and one of the experiments we learned about involved a group of students picking some snacks for a period of three days. One group, if I remember correctly, said their favorite and got assigned that candy; the other got to pick their choices from a selection of snacks. Surprisingly, the group that selected their snacks was more unhappy than the first group because they anticipated a desire for variety based on what they had already eaten, not realizing that they would be hungry again for their favorite the next day. The result? Dissatisfaction.

Choice in modern society is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because we have a freedom not very many people are lucky enough to have. It's a curse because it's hard to stay afloat when you're literally drowning in options. In the first chapter, Schwartz counts up the numbers of options a local supermarket has in the way of snacks, drinks, and various other products, and the results are astonishing.

I really enjoyed this book because it shows some of the reasons so many people today might be so dissatisfied with life, despite their numerous options. It also gives ways to work against the curse of choice, suggesting satisfising (good enough) rather than maximization (only the best!). He also shows how our brains can work against us in these cases, where we put too much faith in our verbal reasons for why we want something, failing to take into account that the salience of these reasons will fade over time, and that sometimes our unarticulated "gut" choices are the better ones in the long run.

Over all, it was a really enjoying read. He has a very engaging style of writing, and manages to address things in layman's terms without being too condescending (or too dumbed down for the psychology majors, like myself). Definitely a good thing to read if you're in psychology, economics, or just wanna figure out how to make the smartest, happiest choice in buying a new cell phone/computer. :)(less)

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Nov 24, 2010 John Hilton rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read the book, but found myself disagreeing with many of the examples. Maybe I'm just weird; but for the most part I appreciate having choices.

Here’s some excerpts that I liked:

“Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues have shown that what we remember about the pleasurable quality of our past experiences is almost entirely determined by two things: how the experiences felt when they were at their peak (best or worst), and how they felt when they ended.

…Here’s an exam...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

As one who typically ignores the latest in gadgetry, I found this book generally agreeable (I don’t even know what the IPad is supposed to be - a souped-up Kindle? I give it six months…). I simply quit breakfast at age twelve because of the mind-numbing endeavor of choosing cereal! According to Schwartz’s narrative, my market-aloofness sort of correlates with an ideal approach. Using the terminology – and assuming I have any self-awareness left - I do believe I qualify as a “satisficer” as oppos...more As one who typically ignores the latest in gadgetry, I found this book generally agreeable (I don’t even know what the IPad is supposed to be - a souped-up Kindle? I give it six months…). I simply quit breakfast at age twelve because of the mind-numbing endeavor of choosing cereal! According to Schwartz’s narrative, my market-aloofness sort of correlates with an ideal approach. Using the terminology – and assuming I have any self-awareness left - I do believe I qualify as a “satisficer” as opposed to “maximizer” when confronted with (or in complete avoidance of) inexhaustible choices. That’s great. I like to feel normal once in a while. I do have a tinge of suspicion, following Groucho Marx’s statement about club membership, that my indifference to consumer choice might not represent any exemplar and thus Schwartz’s assertions are way off.. I’m always 6.7 years behind in technology and I typically get screwed by the third best internet and cell phone service providers.

Highlighting various studies and observations, the author offers something of a common sense approach to sifting through the mountain of stuff we call the United States. This is a manifesto to an overwhelmed populace - those psychologically and financially impacted by multitudinous options. As I lack anything approaching a sociology degree my biggest criticism might be that, despite the mere 200-something pages, this could be much shorter. The various studies mentioned often get repeated in subsequent chapters in unnecessary detail for instance. I could easily imagine a 20-minute Power Point presentation covering everything in this book. I’m also not a big fan of the self-helpiness of the conclusion. It’s more Oprah than NPR, the forum from which I heard an interview with the author. Had I actually read the book description, with “eleven practical steps” explicitly stated, I might have left it on the library shelf. However, as a bona fide satisficer, I don’t sweat the details.
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Mar 22, 2010 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Always fascinated by the high level of consumerism exhibited by most Americans, I was interested to see what Schwartz had to say about how we are affected by the seemingly endless options for almost ANYTHING that are around us daily. Well, he came to the conclusion that I would suspect: it's partly the fact that we have so many choices and options (whether for TV channels or dishwashers, colors of camis or type of flip-flop, cars or cans of soup) that makes us feel more stressed out and pressed...more

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Nov 20, 2009 Josh Werner rated it 1 of 5 stars

a frustrating and unrewarding read. the author writes the book as an opinion piece with very little scientific reasoning or cited work to back up his claims. in addition, the statistics, graphs, and metrics that he does use are either useless or incomplete. my favorite illustration of this comes from a description of how to evaluate oneself on the "regret scale:"

To score yourself on this scale, just put a number from 1 ("Disagree Completely") to 7 ("Agree Completely") next to each question. Then

...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Rachel Rueckert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: self-improvement

This book honestly changed my life. I am quintessentially a “maximizer” in almost all areas and understand what Fred Hirsch called the “tyranny of small decisions” (21). Too much freedom comes at a price. This book diagnoses a potential cause of the depression “epidemic” in the developed world that appears to have more freedom than ever before. Schwartz offers some compelling examples of how too much choice actually decreases satisfaction and some appropriate remedies to combat maximizing thinki...more

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