Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 31, 2011

Hubert rated it:

Effectively written: takes the issue of choice from various perspectives, cultural, psychological, evolutionary, and business. The beginning and the final chapters were the best; the takes really takes off after she describes her Menlo Park jam experiment. In general the coolest parts of the book involved her description and distillation of important psychological experiments which involve the subject of choice.

One aspect of choice she may consider more deeply is how our morality aff More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I had to read this non-fiction book quite slowly, over the course of a month, annoying friends and colleagues by citing Iyengar's studies as they attempted to choose items off a menu, though even this slow pace wasn't long enough to really make the information stick in my brain.
Iyengar presents a rather overwhelming amount of information on her enormous and fascinating topic, mostly in the form of psychology experiments about how people choose things and make decisions both trivial and lif More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

Twelve is a publishing company devoted to publishing no more than one book a month, twelve books a year. I was first introduced to Twelve through Boomsday by Christopher Buckley (also the author of Thank You for Smoking and Supreme Courtship). Eventually, I got curious and decided to see what other books this elusive publishing company considered worthy of its time and resources and this book, The Art of Choosing, was one of them. It's been sitting on my to-read list for several months now, and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 10, 2011

Drani rated it:

As the author detailed her social experiments on choice, I kept thinking how fun it would be to do those experiments. Being a social scientist sounds like fun! There's no but -- I still wish I could spend my day thinking of ways to see how people think.

I first heard of Sheena Iyengar when I saw her TED talk. She writes very much as she speaks -- very simply, personally, and engagingly. I was initially a little put off by her personal anecdotes, thinking that they didn't address her iss More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2010

getAbstract rated it:

Thought-provoking analysis of choice

Easy choices – like cake or death, as in British comedian Eddie Izzard’s famous routine – don’t require much thought or study. But almost any other choice invites complications and confusion, a problem social psychologist Sheena Iyengar mines and turns into fascinating reading. In this study of different facets of decision making, she delves into such topics as whether your devotion to Coca-Cola relies on its taste or its ties to Santa Claus, and s More...

0 comments like

Jun 28, 2010

Christina rated it:

Really interesting look at all kinds of choices and how we view choice in our lives. The nursing home studies were interesting (residents given choices, even very unimportant ones, were less likely to die and happier), as were some of the others. In one, Indian arranged marriages were compared with marriages where the partners married for love. After ten years, those in arranged marriages were happier.

The main take-home message of the books is that people are very irrational when More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2010

Dora rated it:

Part philosophy part social psychology, this book was incredibly thought-provoking. I loved reading it, even if at times I felt slightly annoyed by it.

I've always hated academic writing and I thought the colloquial, conversational tone of the book made it quite lively and relatable. In the acknowledgments she mentions how she would discuss the book topics with her child to help her write, and clearly that helped her write the book in a more accessible way.

Things that ann More...

1 comment like

Mar 16, 2010

Charlotte rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. The author goes to great lengths to clarify why we make the choices we make. She looks at how we are raised helps influence how we approach decisions, how other influence us in the moment of making a choice, how we really feel about the choices we make and how even when you abstain from making a choice you are still making a choice.
I really enjoyed reading this as it was able to be both personal and informative. i hope this doesn't end up getting lumped More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2011

Lee rated it:

The Art of Choosing is an interesting, entertaining and useful book. It focuses heavily on the, psychology of making choices and psychological effects of being faced with and making choices. This focus is understandable because the author is a psychologist. However, she also examines the biological, sociological, economic, cultural and political aspects of choosing. The book is practical rather than philosophical in its approach and purpose. However, profound philosophical and theological premis More...

0 comments like

Jun 05, 2011

Karen rated it:

Decision Making - what delicious fun and dreadful conundrums! Salesmen and teachers have always known that presentation matters, but Iyengar reveals just how much and why! In this exceedingly eclectic and very readable book, Iyengar discusses the tension between our automatic and reflective mental systems when making decisions. She explores the heuristics and biases present in cultural differences and the coping skills we use to diffuse cognitive dissonance. Iyengar is most famous for the " More...

0 comments like

Jun 17, 2010

Judy rated it:

I don't often think: this writer is truly a genius. But Ms. Iyengar, blinded at a young age, seems to have developed extraordinary reflective abilities. (Or maybe she would have been remarkable regardless.)

This is a thoughtful book that presents and digests many formal experiments that ponder why humans choose as they do. One of the first things you learn is that how we perceive choice is actually very culturally derived. We live in a culture that values choice and assume other c More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2012

Trish rated it:

p265: It is tempting to promote choice as the great equalizer--after all, that's what so many dreams, including the American one, are built on. ... We should not, however, take this to mean that faith, hope, and rhetoric alone are sufficient. Like the swimming rats in Richter's experiment, we can survive for only so long without solid ground beneath our feet; if the choices aren't real, sooner or later we will go under.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Steve rated it:

Insightful and easy to read. Not bad but not as good as the Paradox of Choice. Her personal discussion on arranged marriage was probably the most interesting part for me - it really opened my eyes to the other side of the argument - that romantic love fades and that familiarity breeds attraction over time (e.g. office workers and college dorm-mates often become close friends). Amazingly a survey conducted in Jaipur, found that while arranged couples started off "less in love" than fo More...

0 comments like

May 13, 2010

Andrew rated it:

This book discusses some research (by the author and others) about how we make choices, and how having too many choices can lead to difficult decision making. But it's interesting that the author chooses to ignore all the existing research that contradicts the point she is trying to make.

Take for example her "jam study", where people offered 6 varieties of jam samples were much more likely to buy jam in a store than those offered 24 different samples. The author is well awa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

Carole rated it:

I think I was originally intrigued by the cover, but I found the exploration of choice from whether we as individuals choose versus having choices made by parents or peers as it plays out in different cultures to how those factors influence our motivation and performance and the effects of a limited number of choices in shopping vs the extensive choice in our supermarkets influences behavior. I found the chapter on medical choice making particularly poignant as a physician because people become More...

0 comments like

Jun 05, 2010

Jim rated it:

one of several books i've recently read dealing with the literature regarding psychology, choice, behavioral economics and happiness - its probably the best.

iyengar offers a broad overview of the concept of choice, the psychology of choice and ultimately a great deal of insight into what drives effective and ineffective choices. the primary thrust of the book demonstrated how choices can go astray, yet iyengar ultimately remains optimistic that increased knowledge of psychology will More...

0 comments like

Jan 23, 2012

LonelyRose rated it:

Why we choose? How? When?
What affect our choices, & the way we choose ?
Are we really want to choose? Why we become disappointed with our choices sometimes??

The book is packed with A LOT of big Questions
Don't expect a lot of Answers , but it will help you understand a lot about choosing
You may get overwhelmed with the studies, researches results, examples… but it's definitely an Eye opener book worth reading

Quoting:

Choice gives us permission to i More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Angela rated it:

The author makes a case that we have a strong desire for choice, which is in some cases beneficial and in other cases destructive. She goes on to look at the many inconsistencies between what we think we want and what we actually choose, as well as exploring cultural and historical differences in expectations surrounding choice. There is no clear cut solution here, no actual "art of choosing". Just a little reflection human psychology that might make the reader a little more self-aware More...

0 comments like

Jul 09, 2011

Gaya3lakshmanan rated it:

Amazing book! I first came across Sheena Iyengar's name in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, and was struck by her very unusual name (Iyengar sounds like a Tam-Bram name, but not Sheena). Piqued, I googled her and found her story very interesting - she is actually a Punjabi, and is married to a Kannada Iyengar (honestly, I thought Iyengars were always Tamils!! Ignorant me!). What's more, the author is visually challenged. Sheena Iyengar is an expert on Choice.
Later when I came across this book at More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2011

Greta rated it:

Who would have thought that so much energy goes into the decisions we make all the time as a matter of course? While some choices are big and others more insignificant, we're confronted with choices every step of the way. What I liked about this book was the research that went into how we choose and perhaps why we choose the things we do, despite the inclination to think we'd choose differently or for a different or better reason. At the end of the book I was left with the feeling that too mu More...

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2011

Monica rated it:

This is a readable, accessible book citing some well-known research on human and animal behaviour on how they make choices. I realise that research show that the process of making choices is fraught with paradoxes, denial and contradictions. I forgive myself!

Choices help us create the stories of our life. They are complicated, contradictory and full of cognitive dissonance and is affected by culture, gratification, timing, expectations, reverse psychology just to name a few. The great More...

0 comments like

Jun 12, 2011

Marie rated it:

I just worked at a Montessori school as an assistant to the teacher for the past 6 months...and if you know about Montessori it is all about choice and letting the children choose and them being movitated to learn because they want to and not because someone is telling them...there is a lot more to it...but this book about choice is very thought provoking and conversation lending...since Americans want so much choice you think that is a common universal idea...not so, many places people are happ More...

0 comments like

Nov 05, 2011

Shaun rated it:

This was an interesting book along the lines of a Malcolm Gladwell book. We have choices to make everyday. I enjoyed the author's final paragraph, "Choosing helps us creat our lives. We make choices and are in turn made by them. Science can assist us in becoming more skillful choosers, but at its core, choice remains an art. To gain the most from it, we must embrace uncertainty and contradiction. It does not look the same to all eyes, nor can everyone agree on it's purpose. Sometimes choice More...

0 comments like

Jul 13, 2011

Matt rated it:

The Art of Choosing epitomizes the worst of "pop science" books. The author is a renowned researcher on "choice" and clearly has the experience and authority to write a definitive book on the subject. However, she chooses to take a folksy, colloquial tone in this book which undermines the importance and substance of her research. While several specific studies are cited and their findings discussed, what is lacking is an overall narrative that ties the research together. More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2010

Leah rated it:

After listening to an interview with the author, I was looking forward to reading the book. Perhaps it was my distracted mood, or perhaps it was her style but I couldn't get engaged in the audiobook. I desperately wanted a paper copy so I could page ahead to see if there was more interesting work coming up. The revelations weren't startling or mind-blowing. Americans prefer to have lots of choice in their lives. Hmmm. Asian and Eastern Europeans generally work towards goals that benefit the grou More...

0 comments like

Apr 11, 2011

Raj rated it:

The book is really interesting. I learned a lot about choices and biases, and was quite surprised about the results of some studies. The downside was the feeling that i was readiing a series of articles than a coherent narrative by the author. May be i should read it once more to find that. Also the author was more interested in presenting the dilemmas and how people behaved in those situations rather than giving us some direction for better choices. May be it was author's intention to just pre More...

0 comments like

Jun 14, 2010

Alisa rated it:

Making decisions is hard for me. I often "choose not to choose" because choosing between options is so hard it can ruin my day. I thought if I read this book, I might understand why.

I don't feel like I have a lot more insight into myself, or a clear avenue for making the process less painless in the future, but I did find the many studies on everything from consumer choice to communism to be really fascinating.

The overriding theme of this book, I think, is that More...

0 comments like

Jun 07, 2011

Tommy rated it:

Wonderful book and very much NOT what I expected. For me the most exciting elements were the case studies and research. So much so that my ideas have been very positively affected. Learning how to tune a selection of offerings (books, ideas, methods for finding stuff) to both the user AND their needs (two separate entities) will result in heaven. [hell is the place where nothing connects to nothing; Vartan Gregorian -Dante]

However, Iyengar does become enamored with her own understandin More...

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2011

Anarika rated it:

If you expect to read an illuminated self - help book, one of those who do not lecture you from a pulpit, and are there to help you understand your choices and make them in your life, you might be slightly disillusioned after you understand that this chapter that is supposed to concretely help YOU is never coming.
But this is an excellent book that presents a series of interesting and thought-provoking researches and findings in the field of social and psychological research about choice. I More...

0 comments like

May 23, 2010

Terri rated it:

This book took me a little while to get into because it wasn't quite what I expected. Iyengar is a researcher who has specialized in studying the way people make choices since she was an undergrad. This book is partly memoir, partly scientific treatise, partly philosophy, and has some self-help thrown in for good measure. I found Iyengar's research fascinating and the writing style was very conversational. The book is thought-provoking and interesting. While parts were a bit unfocused, over More...

0 comments like

reviews