The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

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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.

What Customers Say About The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less:

He was depressed because the jeans he bought weren't perfect. And this guy just gave people one more stupid choice of a way to waste their time and money on pseudo-sociology self-help BS. What a self-absorbed idiot. Just saw this guy hawking his book on Colbert and had to come here to say - WHAT A CROCK. People have been making stupid choices and feeling undeserved self-pity since the dawn of time, whether they had many choices or few. That's his CHOICE for a best example of too many choices.

And even as some of his conclusions and arguments seem a bit oversimplified or generalised there are many take-away information from the book and it will definitely change the way you see and make decisions and might even help you simplify your life and ease your pain. is, but how subjectively good or bad it is (how good we feel about it and how good we think it is).The argument goes as follows: Objectively more choice can only provide better opportunities and therefore better decisions. Its author tries to convince us that maybe not the easiest but an essential way to improve our life and happiness is to "simplify" and to be less choosy.The book is written in an easy to understand but still scientifically correct style, drawing on a discipline of psychology called "positive psychology" and a range of studies from this area and behavioural economics. Nonetheless reading the book is all the time pleasing and never a pain.Schwartz argues and gives rather compelling evidence that, yes, to have choice is better than not to have choice, but that to have TOO MUCH choice can be even more harmful.He cites a range of studies focusing on regret, opportunity costs and expectations - all factors that influence not how objectively good or bad a "choice" (product, vacation, life partner,.). One could equally argue that if there is no possibility to divorce people adjust to the situation but could be happier. Although his distinction between objective and subjective sometimes blurs the point of what should be valuable: Is an objectively better product that feels subjectively worse still worse. - And although his example and argument-focus is always America his studies draw from a range of countries and cultures.A bit annoying is that many arguments seem very repetitive and although there is always a small twist that makes it more important there still remains a feeling that the author tried to fill pages. But it is nice how the author is able to pull many strings together and bring the studies he cites to concise conclusions.

But in reality the more choice we have,(1) the longer it takes us to decide (and time is valuable)., (2) the worse we feel before we decide and the less likely we are to decide (because we fear that something else might be better) and (3) after the decision, the more choices there were the less we can enjoy the one we made.The conclusions the author draws are already quite obvious from his arguments and the above: to be more happy we ought to diminish our choosiness, follow self-made or adopted rules for choice (buy the same breakfast cereal without thinking about it every time), should not focus (or even pay a premium for) the possibility to return products and should consciously cherish the good in what we have.Although his arguments are very compelling his conclusions and morals sometimes seem a bit too oversimplified. Both of them will make us equally happy, but does that mean they are equally good.For this price definitely a recommended buy.In general his book is very insightful, an easy read and does not distort facts. This book falls in the "popular psychology" book category. This definitely adds to the easy-to-read style but not exactly to the joy that the book presents. For example he obviously thinks that a high rate of divorce is bad but that is quite a strong and unfounded claim.

Perfect fodder for a cocktail party and you will learn something new. It is a quick read and very interesting. It could have accomplished the same thing in 75% of the pages or included more discussion of the scientific research on the topic. If you are looking to get into the issues and pitfalls of decision making, this is a very good and fun book to test the waters. While it has way too many redundant examples of decisions we are all constantly faced with, it does a great job of identifying each of the components of most of the decisions we make. I am just not sure it really had to be quite as long as it was.

I would like to suppose that what the book sites as too many choices, in fact amounts to very few ones. The examples are many and range from tires manufactured by the same company from the same materials on the same production lines under different brand names and sold for different prices, to political parties that pursue the same policies but differentiate by ideological rhetoric.The premise of this book is stupid or dishonest. I do not debate the point that too many products and choices lead to confusion and confusion leads to unhappiness. That most choices we are facing are not choices at all, but the same stuff in different packaging to create an illusion of choice.

Nope. Say hello to "extra large, jumbo, collosal, super collosal & biggie size".Schwartz makes an obvious point when he suggests that consumers are faced with so many silly choices, all it's doing is wasting our time and energy in making a decision that has little or no significance to the value added to the purchase. I suppose all these variations are driven by the marketing gurus at the various corporations, striving to get that extra market share point; naturally, all this does is raise prices because the extra revenue is needed to pay off these so-called marketing gurus.In the final analysis, Schwartz' findings are not much more profound than what we probably already knew before he wrote this book. Who needs 47 different detergents to do a load of laundry. In this day and age, that's not a bad choice. Just to experiment about the silliness of choice we face at the grocery store, I decided to purchase a different variety of detergent every time I need a new batch, to see if there's really any difference.

However, it was an enjoyable read, and made me chuckle from time to time. Barry Schwartz' engaging study into the confusing landscape of consumer decision making is a clever reminder that things have really gotten out of hand. Of course, "small, medium & large" have some extra friends at a typical fast food eatery. The clothes got just as clean, no matter what the label advertised.The same goes for toothpaste, shampoos, you name it.