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The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits [Hardcover]

Kent Greenfield (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2011

Americans are fixated on the idea of choice. Our political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal system is built upon the argument that people freely make choices and bear responsibility for them. And what slogan could better express the heart of our consumer culture than "Have it your way"?

In this provocative book, Kent Greenfield poses unsettling questions about the choices we make. What if they are more constrained and limited than we like to think? If we have less free will than we realize, what are the implications for us as individuals and for our society? To uncover the answers, Greenfield taps into scholarship on topics ranging from brain science to economics, political theory to sociology. His discoveries—told through an entertaining array of news events, personal anecdotes, crime stories, and legal decisions—confirm that many factors, conscious and unconscious, limit our free will. Worse, by failing to perceive them we leave ourselves open to manipulation. But Greenfield offers useful suggestions to help us become better decision makers as individuals, and to ensure that in our laws and public policy we acknowledge the complexity of choice.

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The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits + What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite + Thinking, Fast and Slow
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fascinating account of the constraints on personal choice, and the consequences of those constraints for sexuality, religion, politics, law, and everyday life.”—Geoffrey R. Stone, author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime
 
(Geoffrey R. Stone 20110511)

"Informative, lively and provocative, The Myth of Choice has important implications for the decisions we make in our everyday lives."—Glenn C. Altschuler, Oregonian
(Glenn C. Altschuler Oregonian )

"[F]ascinating . . . it is undeniably important that we become better aware of the forces that subtly and profoundly limit our choices."—Michael Kroner, The Plain Dealer
(Michael Kroner The Plain Dealer )

"A fascinating, engaging dissection of the meanings and implications of choice in a wide variety of cultural arenas."—Matthew Tiffany, Shelf Awareness
(Matthew Tiffany Shelf Awareness )

“Greenfield unpacks the complexities masked by the free-market bromides, which pass for economic debate in the United States, deftly dispatching ossified conventional wisdom that completely ignores our growing knowledge of how people actually make decisions. “—Boston Globe
(Boston Globe )

"Informative, lively and provocative, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits has important implications for the decisions we make in our everyday lives."—Glenn C. Altschuler, The Sunday Oregonian
(Glenn C. Altschuler The Sunday Oregonian )

From the Inside Flap

"Kent Greenfield has written a brilliant, profoundly thought-provoking book about the many constraints on decision making, from the most personal choices to those of the highest government officials."--Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, School of Law

"Kent Greenfield argues in lively, accessible style that much of what we experience as choice is better understood as the product of circumstance. His challenge is meant to unsettle our beliefs, our judgments, and our values--and it does."--Noah Feldman, author of Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices

"Kent Greenfield has a knack for conveying difficult ideas in accessible terms. The Myth of Choice, sure to be a hit, focuses on one of the great challenges in law and policy--how to reconcile our idealistic belief in choice with everyday realities."--Heather K. Gerken, au- thor of The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It

"The Myth of Choice shows that we can make better choices for ourselves and design better public policy by understanding the promise, and the limits, of choice."--Pamela S. Karlan, author of Keeping Faith with the Constitution
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press (October 11, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 9780300169508
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300169508
  • ASIN: 0300169507
  • Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
(13)
4.4 out of 5 stars
See all 13 customer reviews
“ The author is an engaging writer, who makes reading every chapter a delight. ” Adam D Winkler  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
“ Professor Greenfield's voice really is that of a new and exciting public intellectual. ” Frank Partnoy  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - sharp, insightful, witty September 18, 2011
By Adam D Winkler
Format:Hardcover
Rarely do you find a book that mixes such sharp insight, meticulous research, and humorous storytelling. The author is an engaging writer, who makes reading every chapter a delight. The book is smart too, revealing the subtle and fascinating ways that our personal choices about sex, money, work, and politics are limited. We think of ourselves as free to do whatever we want, but Greenfield shows how the law, the marketplace, and our own hidden biases restrict our choices in ways that we never acknowledge. There's a telling anecdote on every page. Greenfield masters the cutting-edge research in one field after another, then puts it together in a novel and persuasive way. Just as important, The Myth of Choice gives you the tools to understand how to improve your own decision making in everyday life -- whether buying a new washing machine, choosing a mate, or deciding who to vote for come Election Day. Definitely on my list of best books of the year!
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A new and exciting public intellectual October 20, 2011
By Frank Partnoy
Format:Hardcover
I first read this book in draft, and was so thrilled about it that I did a back cover blurb. Professor Greenfield's voice really is that of a new and exciting public intellectual. My blurb said that the book is "bubbling with policy recommendations, fascinating paradoxes, and homespun personal advice about our most important life choices. A must read for thought leaders, regulators, and anyone who cares about novel and interesting ideas."

I'll be a little more specific here than is possible in a blurb. From the beginning, Greenfield grabs us with the question of whether we face constraints on our choices. The answer is clearly yes, and once he has hooked us, he explores several types of constraints, ranging from culture to power. You won't think about sex trafficking the same way again.

For example, his exploration of how our biological limitations, particularly in our brains, limit our choices is more accessible and interesting than the ones offered by many neuroscientists. There is some memorable and lively writing here, as when Greenfield discusses the "bikini effect" - why men buy more beer when we see attractive women - and says this: "Men see attractive women and crave pleasure. In the absence of something better, they get their drink on. That's also why casinos dress their hostesses in scanty outfits, why car shows are staffed with sexy women, and why Tomb Raider Lara Croft has breast implants." You won't forget THAT point.

His chapter on markets is especially compelling, and is directly relevant to economic policy and decisions. Although markets are powerful and often allocate resources in reasonable ways, Greenfield points out their failures, and how they relate to what we too often think of as our own free choices. Gambling is a interesting example. We freely enter casinos, for example, but we usually don't think about how our behavior is changed when we do: the lighting, the absence of clocks and windows, the "mood-influencing" aromas, and the use of chips. There is no coercion, but there are serious constraints on our free choices. As Greenfield writes, "Casinos are markets perfected, but choice perverted." Again, you won't forget the point.

All told, this is a colorful, memorable book - part memoir about an interesting life, part scholarship about hugely important policy questions. And it is just plain fun to read.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The misleading mirage we call Choice December 14, 2011
By Kim M. Clark OD
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
For one schooled in the law, Greenfield's autodidactic command of the neurosciences is impressive. Without the burden of a lengthy preamble, Kent makes it clear at the outset which direction he intends to go. "We are constrained by our own biology," he observes, "[The] scope of our choices is much narrower than we have long assumed." He gently, but persuasively, reminds the reader that what we know as the freedom to choose, may, in fact, be little more than appearance; and appearances can be deceiving. As he notes, "This book is about our fixation on choice and our confused responses to it."

Included in his abundant list of anecdotes and case studies (which sometimes reveal a dark and coercive side to choice) is reference to our disdain for the obese. We tend to judge such persons as lazy, and ascribe to them a history of making chronically bad and undisciplined choices. But as Greenfield writes, "fat people probably have less responsibility for their size than the climbers on Mount Hood had for being on the slopes of a mountain in December." The science supports what may be a counterintuitive notion. Not looking to excuse fast-food habits, Greenfield notes that "More and more studies show that people are `hard-wired' to eat by deep biological commands. Eating to excess is often a product of the kinds of foods available and how they are marketed, the cultural messages people receive about food, how much money they have, and the availability of safe places to exercise." This ineluctable fact has not escaped the attention of crafty marketers and deft business executives. "[The] most perfect coercion will appear as choice." Brilliant!

When it comes to making choices, there is no escaping neuroscience. There are neural circuits and brain regions, for example, which make the act of choosing even possible. What we fail to recognize, however, is how blind we often are to our prejudices and the neurobiological underpinnings upon which outward behaviors and attitudes supervene. As Kent explains, "We are slaves to our brain chemistry more often and in more ways than we might like to admit." Likewise, we fail to appreciate "how often real choice is a mirage and how frequently the rhetoric of choice is misleading." Reality is the sum of cognitive illusions.

We sense that we are free to choose without acknowledging the neural correlates responsible for the perception itself. But as our law professor states, "Our choices are the outcome of a range of inputs, many of which we're not conscious of." In fact, the overwhelming majority of brain activity never finds its way to the level of consciousness.

On a personal note, I did not choose to love my wife Cindy; my love and admiration for that remarkable woman was a discovery - a discovery I've savored, now, for over 35 years. Likewise, I didn't choose to be heterosexual, or to prefer potatoes to asparagus, or the color green in preference to blue, or rock `n roll over country. And nor have I ever invited tears to moisten my bearded and atrabilious face whenever I hear Andrea Bocelli (together with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) sing The Lord's Prayer. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ... I'm an atheist! I never decided that a coalition of neurons (lodged somewhere in my brain's endogenous reward system) would achieve their "action potentials" every time Bocelli stepped up to the microphone. ... But they do!

Greenfield is an intelligent, gifted writer and an absolute joy to read. His style is mellifluous and engaging, and his attention to detail and his command of the English language is what the reader may expect from a former clerk to retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Of the many notable and articulate citations found in his tightly reasoned tome, perhaps this is my favorite: "The best way to hide a lie is to bury it in a mass of inconsequential truths." F*n Brilliant!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Ours to choose?
Greenfield tells us that his book is about our fixation with choice. He goes on to dismantle the common assumptions that we live in a world where choices are available and that we... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Hande Z
3.0 out of 5 stars Good for Party Conversation
I'm afraid that this book did not impress me. The author presents some interesting ideas about consumer culture and how we're constantly influenced towards making our own... Read more
Published 9 months ago by KJ
3.0 out of 5 stars Great cover, decent book
With a background in psychology, as well as some dabbling in philosophy and legal thought, I was totally excited to read this. The cover is absolutely perfect. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Elise Winters-Huete
3.0 out of 5 stars I love this book..
I really do highly recommend this book...it could be one of the most important works of this century, it is that good. But a couple changes could make it almost perfect. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Lewis Tagliaferre
4.0 out of 5 stars Quick and to-the-point
This is a great read for someone who wants to reflect a bit on the human psyche while still reading something easy to digest. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Kaitlin Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars A beast of a book!
We are often told whatever happens to us is because "we chose it." This book has extraordinary insight into how to articulate the idea of choice in many important areas of today... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Michel
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-Written, Worthwhile Read
The author of this book, Kent Greenfield, who is a law professor seems to have a pretty good grip on the psychology of choice and neuroscience. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Book Fanatic
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Malcolm Gladwell's books, this one's for you
This is an eye-opening book that looks at how the choices we make are often informed by forces beyond our control. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Diana Keeler
5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant and Insightful
This book is a wonderful look into the big picture. Not so much concerned with self-improvement as self-awareness, this book takes one step back to highlight cultural influences... Read more
Published 19 months ago by LKM
5.0 out of 5 stars I chose to read this and you should too
As expected this is an erudite and well thought out examination of how we make decisions and the external and internal influences on those decisions. Read more
Published 19 months ago by serr8ted
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      Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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