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:

Perfect fodder for a cocktail party and you will learn something new. 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. It could have accomplished the same thing in 75% of the pages or included more discussion of the scientific research on the topic. I am just not sure it really had to be quite as long as it was. 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. It is a quick read and very interesting.

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. That most choices we are facing are not choices at all, but the same stuff in different packaging to create an illusion of choice. I do not debate the point that too many products and choices lead to confusion and confusion leads to unhappiness. I would like to suppose that what the book sites as too many choices, in fact amounts to very few ones.

However, it was an enjoyable read, and made me chuckle from time to time. 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. The clothes got just as clean, no matter what the label advertised.The same goes for toothpaste, shampoos, you name it.

Who needs 47 different detergents to do a load of laundry. 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. Barry Schwartz' engaging study into the confusing landscape of consumer decision making is a clever reminder that things have really gotten out of hand.

Nope. In this day and age, that's not a bad choice. Of course, "small, medium & large" have some extra friends at a typical fast food eatery.

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.

Most of the conclusions may seem simple and self evident, but we don't think about them regularly and fall in the trap of spending too much time making decisions and then regretting the choice. It was an eye opener for me for a lot of things. In the decision making process simple and good enough is better than perfect. I loved this book. I even bought a second copy since I gave the first one to a friend.

For me, a person who can't make decisions still (been trying about 20 yrs now), the book makes me think someone ALMOST understands me. Excellent book.I wish I still had it.will get it again.there seemed to be something missing from this book though.can't put my finger on it but it might be "an answer" that's missing.a real answer to the problems of choice it talks about. I would like to see a part 2 with some prayer behind it or a workbook bundled with it. It goes right up to the edge but doesn't jump. a guideline. I suppose if I re-read it I could analyze it on a second read this time to work out my solutions in my own workbook, using some of the suggestions.