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The Paradox of ChoiceWhy more is less

By Barry Schwartz

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Content

1. Choice and freedom

2. Ignoring the options

3. Making good decisions

4. Why we suffer

5. What can we do

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Isn’t choice a good thing?

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Content

1. Choice and freedom

2. Ignoring the options

3. Making good decisions

4. Why we suffer

5. What can we do

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There’s a fundamental difference between choice and freedom

= essential autonomy, which is fundamental to well-being

! The fact that some choice is good does not necessarily mean that more choice is better

= essential to self-respect, public participation, mobility and nourishment

! Not all choice enhances freedom: it may impair freedom by taking time & energy

CHOICE FREEDOM

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Why people can’t ignore many or some of the options

It’s in our faces every day

An industry of marketers & advertisers

makes products difficult or

impossible to ignore

Standard of comparison

We have a tendency to look around at what others are doing and use them as

a standard of comparison

Tyranny of small decisions

It always seems easy to add just

one more item to the array that is already being

considered

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Content

1. Choice and freedom

2. Ignoring the options

3. Making good decisions

4. Why we suffer

5. What can we do

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Making good decisions

Figure out your goals

Evaluate the importance of each goal

Array the options

Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals

Pick the winning option

Later use the winning consequence of your choice to modify your goals, the importance you assign them & the way you evaluate future posibilities

Expected utility

Remembered utility

Experience utility

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Why don’t we always take good decisions?

= if you seek & accept only the best

Get less satisfaction out the choices they make

= to settle for something that is good enough & not worry about the possibility that there might be something better

Maximizers Satisficers

• Take much more time & effort in decision making

• Are less happy, less optimistic & more depressed

• More susceptible to all forms of regret (“buyers remorse”)

People can be a maximizer or a satisficer depending on the specific situation

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Content

1. Choice and freedom

2. Ignoring the options

3. Making good decisions

4. Why we suffer

5. What can we do

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Why we suffer

Choice & happiness

Missed opportunities

The problem of regret

The problem of adaption

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Why we sufferChoice & happiness

InstrumentalIt enables people to get what they want

ExpressiveIt enables people to say who they are

PsychologicalIt enables people to actively and effectively engage in the world

Benefits of choice

Too many choices

= unhappy

BUT

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Why we sufferMissed opportunities

Opportunity costs

• The quality of any given option cannot be assessed in isolation from its alternatives

The psychology of trade-offs

• Being forced to confront trade-offs in making decisions make people unhappy and indecisive

Choices and reasons

• As the stakes of decisions rise, we feel an increased need to justify them.

• Thinking about reasons can alter the decision. This implies that people are not always thinking first and deciding second

How can it be so hard to choose?

Distinguishing between good and bad is far simpler matter than distinguishing better from best

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Why we sufferThe problem of adaption

Perceptual adaptionDecreased responsiveness to sights, sounds, odors and the like as people continue to experience them

Hedonic adaptionAdaption to pleasure

Novelty can change someone’s hedonic standards so that what was once good enough, or even better than that, no longer is

Simply by being aware of the process of adaption, we can anticipate its effects and therefore be less disappointed when it comes

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Why we sufferThe problem of regret

Other forms of regret:• Omission bias (we regret actions that don’t turn out well more than

failures to take actions that would have turned out well)• Near misses• Responsibility for results

The moment

of regret

Post-decision regretAnticipated regret

The prospect of regret is not only an important consequence of many decisions, but the prospect of regret is an important cause of many

decisions

The prospect of regret is not only an important consequence of many decisions, but the prospect of regret is an important cause of many

decisions

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Content

1. Choice and freedom

2. Ignoring the options

3. Making good decisions

4. Why we suffer

5. What can we do

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What can we do about it?

1. Choose when to choose

2. Be a chooser, not a picker

3. Satisfy more and maximize less

4. Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs

5. Make your decisions nonreversable

6. Practice an attitude of gratitude

7. Regret less

8. Anticipate adaption

9. Control expectations

10.Curtail social comparison

11.Learn to love constraints

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An interesting book to read, makes you reflect on choices you have to take in your life

3 reasons to read this book Gaps in this book

1. It shows us how and why we make choices and what we do wrong

2. It gives you a clear understanding about how confused we sometimes get by making choices and how we suffer by doing so

3. It provides tips how we can get less confused whilst making choice and make choice in our lives easier

• Hands-on practical tips you can immediately use in your professional as well as personal life

• More examples on how other people used the book which can inspire you to easy your life