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"The Tyranny of Choice" -Barry Schwartz
--Intro
Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely what makes them happiest. But as studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery.--
I've shared this article with many others throughout the years, and have found it eye-opening pertaining to helping others identify their "choice" types. This can apply to relationships, workplaces, friendships, and any situation that involves another human. This may help you understand why some folks are seemingly indecisive, and others can make on-the-spot decisions. There are Pros and Cons to both, as well as strengths and weaknesses pertaining to occupation types.
Please share you thoughts.
--Intro
Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely what makes them happiest. But as studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery.--
I've shared this article with many others throughout the years, and have found it eye-opening pertaining to helping others identify their "choice" types. This can apply to relationships, workplaces, friendships, and any situation that involves another human. This may help you understand why some folks are seemingly indecisive, and others can make on-the-spot decisions. There are Pros and Cons to both, as well as strengths and weaknesses pertaining to occupation types.
Please share you thoughts.
Sci.Amer.pdf
Posted from swarthmore.edu
Psychology
Education
Learning
Science
People
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 3
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Excellent article. I have professed this view for a long time. We are inundated with choices and frequently we are sold the idea that the 'freedom of choice' is a type of societal virtue. It is an illusion.
I have an anecdote that I like to tell about buying laundry detergent. Once, driving to visit family a couple of hours away, I stopped at an unfamiliar grocery store to pick up the refreshments I had agreed to bring to the gathering. Laundry detergent was an afterthought. We needed some back home. Inside the grocery store, facing an aisle of multi-colored bottles and boxes of different shapes and sizes, varying colors, and labels attesting to numerous and varied qualities, I felt my anxiety rising. My familiar store brand wasn't there. I retreated from the store with the refreshments, opting to wait until I returned home.
My belief about choice: I find not making choices to be liberating. It simply takes less energy to stick with the familiar much of the time. If we constantly seek 'something different' we run out of novelty and experience true serendipity less frequently. If we spend our mental capacity deciding what detergent to buy, which way to drive to work, what socks to wear today, we run out of energy to make important decisions. Making fewer decisions leads to making better decisions.
How do I do this? Buy the same detergent at the same place in the same grocery store. Choose the first thing on the menu that looks good and stop reading. Solicit the advice of people I trust and follow it. Develop good habits and make good decisions. When it really matters, I make choices. When presented with the opportunity to discover real novelty, I make a choice (if everything is unique, then nothing is unique).
I have an anecdote that I like to tell about buying laundry detergent. Once, driving to visit family a couple of hours away, I stopped at an unfamiliar grocery store to pick up the refreshments I had agreed to bring to the gathering. Laundry detergent was an afterthought. We needed some back home. Inside the grocery store, facing an aisle of multi-colored bottles and boxes of different shapes and sizes, varying colors, and labels attesting to numerous and varied qualities, I felt my anxiety rising. My familiar store brand wasn't there. I retreated from the store with the refreshments, opting to wait until I returned home.
My belief about choice: I find not making choices to be liberating. It simply takes less energy to stick with the familiar much of the time. If we constantly seek 'something different' we run out of novelty and experience true serendipity less frequently. If we spend our mental capacity deciding what detergent to buy, which way to drive to work, what socks to wear today, we run out of energy to make important decisions. Making fewer decisions leads to making better decisions.
How do I do this? Buy the same detergent at the same place in the same grocery store. Choose the first thing on the menu that looks good and stop reading. Solicit the advice of people I trust and follow it. Develop good habits and make good decisions. When it really matters, I make choices. When presented with the opportunity to discover real novelty, I make a choice (if everything is unique, then nothing is unique).
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SFC (Join to see)
So do you think you are a Maximizer or Satisficer?
Based on your anecdote, I would guess you to be a Maximizer.
Based on your anecdote, I would guess you to be a Maximizer.
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CPT John Sheridan
Self assessment is often filled with bias. I would like to think that I am a Maximizer, but I think most of my choices are aimed at "good enough", so I would say I'm mostly a Satisfier. I think for the big decisions, I try to make the best choice. Like financial decisions. I can become kind of geeky. I'll build a spreadsheet to find the best result. So, in some cases, a Maximizer.
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Very good article. I have certainly faced this delimma. It takes work to keep my brain focused on what is relevant.
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