The Paradox of Choice
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| Author | Barry Schwartz |
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| Cover artist | David High & Ralph del Pozzo, High Design, NYC |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Psychology, Sociology |
| Genre | Choice, Decision making |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
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Publication date
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2004 (hardcover) January 18, 2005 (paperback) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | (hardcover) 0060005696 (paperback) |
| OCLC | 64265862 |
| 153.8/3 | |
| LC Class | BF611 .S38 2004 |
The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less is a 2004 book by American psychologist Barry Schwartz. In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers.
Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.
Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement.
Schwartz compares the various choices that Americans face in their daily lives by comparing the selection of choices at a supermarket to the variety of classes at an Ivy League college.
There are now several books and magazines devoted to what is called the "voluntary simplicity" movement. Its core idea is that we have too many choices, too many decisions, too little time to do what is really important. [...] Taking care of our own "wants" and focusing on what we "want" to do does not strike me as a solution to the problem of too much choice.
Schwartz maintains that it is precisely so that we can focus on our own wants that all of these choices emerged in the first place.
Schwartz describes that a consumer's strategy for most good decisions will involve these steps:
Schwartz relates the ideas of psychologist Herbert A. Simon from the 1950s to the psychological stress that most consumers face today. He notes some important distinctions between, what Simon termed, maximizers and satisficers. A maximizer is like a perfectionist, someone who needs to be assured that their every purchase or decision was the best that could be made. The way a maximizer knows for certain is to consider all the alternatives they can imagine. This creates a psychologically daunting task, which can become even more daunting as the number of options increases. The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer. A satisficer has criteria and standards, but a satisficer is not worried about the possibility that there might be something better. Ultimately, Schwartz agrees with Simon's conclusion, that satisficing is, in fact, the maximizing strategy.
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