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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less Hardcover – January 6, 2004
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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.
As Americans, 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 counter intuitive 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 those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEcco
- Publication dateJanuary 6, 2004
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.97 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100060005688
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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From Booklist
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Review
“Brilliant.... The case Schwartz makes... is compelling, the implications disturbing.... An insightful book.” — Christian Science Monitor
“An insightful study that winningly argues its subtitle.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
“Schwartz lays out a convincing argument.... [He] is a crisp, engaging writer with an excellent sense of pace.” — Austin American-Statesman
“Schwartz offers helpful suggestions of how we can manage our world of overwhelming choices.” — St. Petersburg Times
“Wonderfully readable.” — Washington Post
“Schwartz has plenty of insightful things to say about the perils of everyday life.” — Booklist
“With its clever analysis, buttressed by sage New Yorker cartoons, The Paradox of Choice is persuasive.” — BusinessWeek
From the Back Cover
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.
As Americans, 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 counter intuitive 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 those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
About the Author
Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. He is the author of several books, including Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing, with Kenneth Sharpe, and Why We Work. His articles have appeared in many of the leading journals in his field, including American Psychologist.
Product details
- Publisher : Ecco; 1st edition (January 6, 2004)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0060005688
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.97 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #461,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #355 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- #1,026 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving
- #1,041 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action in the psychology department at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of several leading textbooks on the psychology of learning and memory, as well as a penetrating look at contemporary life, The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality, and Modern Life. Dr. Schwartz is married and has two children.
Photo by Bill Holsinger-Robinson (Flickr: IMG_2638) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Customers find the book very good and worth reading. They also find the insights insightful, creative, and revealing. Readers appreciate the content quality, saying it's filled with actual data and examples. However, some feel the concepts are repeated many times.
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Customers find the book very good, interesting, and worth reading. They say it offers a decent summary of various theories. Readers also mention the book is fun and well-written.
"...His compact and smoothly written book sheds light on many aspects of decision-making, the stress of `roads not taken,' the curse of high..." Read more
"...A fantastic book on why more is less (or less is more). It is a fantastic essay on how the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction in life, and..." Read more
"...In the end the book is worth a read - especially if you are a Maximizer who finds themselves overwhelmed...." Read more
"...The book makes so many important points, and explains them so lucidly, persuasively, and non-ideologically, that I think everyone should read it." Read more
Customers find the book insightful, fascinating, and eye-opening. They say it evokes interesting thoughts and conversations. Readers also mention the book presents some wonderful examples of how to deal with things in the real world. Overall, they say it shows an important perspective on how we see the world.
"...Schwartz contends that it is. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, the author shows how the dramatic explosion of choice--from the mundane..." Read more
"...and enjoyable things in the book was the inclusion of many creative and revealing psychological experiments which produced unexpected insights..." Read more
"...throughout the book, as if it's like a mini-textbook, only infinitely more enjoyable and arguably more interesting...." Read more
"This is an eye-opening book -- it brings the clarity and insight into decision-making that The Tipping Point did for trends...." Read more
Customers find the content interesting and well-explained. They appreciate the case studies and techniques to help make decisions. Readers also say the content looks like common sense and the author picks good examples that clearly illustrate his ideas. They mention the book helps them see the issue and gives some ideas on what we need to examine.
"...Professor Schwartz's advice was lucid, logical, and sensible - but you will have to read it yourself..." Read more
"...It shares enough case studies and examples of why more is less, and how to increase satisfaction life...." Read more
"...He even offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and..." Read more
"...points, and explains them so lucidly, persuasively, and non-ideologically, that I think everyone should read it." Read more
Customers find the book repetitive. They mention it goes on too long about the obvious.
"...it cites are interesting, a lot of the book is filled with extremely repetitive content...." Read more
"...While I felt the book was repetitive at times and often too long in defending ideas which didn't seem very controversial, it helped me understand a..." Read more
"...At times the book is repetitous or goes on too long about the obvious, but all in all a worthwhile addition to literature about how much our..." Read more
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"The concepts in this book are amazing. The book is a little slow in some places but overall one of my all time favorites for making me see things..." Read more
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Those wide choices may seem appealing, but Schwartz brings our attention to what he calls `the darker side of freedom' - the stress of choice. This paradox is the most pronounced in the financial markets. Even though his book is about the paradox of choice in general, I read it with an eye towards the financial markets, my own trading, and what I see in other traders.
Shall we trade stocks, futures, or options? If stocks, shall we trade the more seasoned issues on the NYSE or look for riskier high-growth candidates on the NASDAQ? Should we track agricultural, tropical, or financial futures? And what about the forex? Should we buy or write options, or look into more complex strategies, such as spreads? And worst of all - what if another market makes a spectacular move while our attention is focused elsewhere? No wonder the majority of traders feel so stressed. Schwartz says "Choosing almost always involves giving up something else of value. ... The overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
"Losses hurt more than gains satisfy. ... The cost of any option involves passing up the opportunities that a different option would have afforded. ... Conflict induces people to avoid decisions. ...Emotional unpleasantness makes for bad decisions. ... The desire to avoid regret leads to inaction inertia. ... An overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
Every trader who kicked himself after a profitable trade for having `left more money on the table' will chuckle at a cartoon of a kid in a t-shirt that says "Brown ... but my first choice was Yale." Schwartz shows how people are divided into `maximizers' who always strive for the best and `satisficers' those who settle for some reasonable level of success. "Almost everyone who scores high on maximization scale also scores high on regret." You can decide to be a maximizer in a very small number of situations that truly matter to you and be a more mellow satisficer in the rest of your life. "We would be better off seeking what was good enough instead of seeking the best."
Connections with trading kept running through my mind while reading this book. How many successful people kick themselves, feeling that their performance was not good enough. How many stay way too long in a bad trade because of `sunk costs.' Schwartz exposes the endless flow of coulda-shoulda-woulda as `counterfactual thinking.' He shows how keeping records of decisions impacts people's attitudes towards those decisions. I have been saying over and again that keeping good records is the single most important step towards becoming a successful trader.
The tone of Professor Schwartz's book is that of a friendly, intelligent neighbor, dealing with the same human dilemmas as you and I. He shares his thinking about our problems by talking with us, not at us. His compact and smoothly written book sheds light on many aspects of decision-making, the stress of `roads not taken,' the curse of high expectations, etc.
The mere fact of outlining a problem is a big step towards clarity, but after 10 chapters, I felt ready to hear about his proposed solutions. They were delivered in Chapter 11 (which I hope had nothing to do with the eponymous chapter of the bankruptcy code :-)). Professor Schwartz's advice was lucid, logical, and sensible - but you will have to read it yourself (I do not describe it here because reciting solutions without having worked through the problems is likely not to be useful.)
I highly recommend this book to all traders. My only quibble is the paper quality of the paperback - it is grayish, and should have been much whiter! But the publisher offers you no choice!
www elder com
Four and Half Stars- Must Read for anyone interested in "decision making"
A fantastic book on why more is less (or less is more). It is a fantastic essay on how the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction in life, and more importantly bring in depression. It shares enough case studies and examples of why more is less, and how to increase satisfaction life.
Key Idea: Giving people too many choices tends to lessen their satisfaction.
“Maximizers” are people who, given a choice, will exhaustively search all the options, seeking all possible information, in order to make the best possible choice. This behavior generally consumes a lot of time, and often leads to nagging doubts, perhaps where no one clear winner emerged.
“Satisficers” are those who settle for a choice that is “good enough” for them These people are generally happier with their choice, and spend less time choosing, leaving them free to enjoy other things.
Counterintuitive wisdom
1. We are better of if we embraced voluntary constrains of choice on our freedom of choice, instead of rebelling against in thme
2. We are better off when we choose good enough instead of seeking the best
3. Lower your expectations about the results of your decisions
4. We are better off if our decisions are irreverseable
5. We are better off if we paid less attention to what others do around us
Summary of the book by Chapter:
Lets go shopping: Every area of our life from the super market to the education market offers way too much choice.
New Choice: Filtering our extraneous information is the key function of consciousnesses.
Deciding and Choosing: Figure your goals out, rank them, evaluate options and their likelyhood to meet goals, pick winning option .
Growth of options and opportunities means decisions require more effort, mistakes are more likely and psychological ocnsequence of mistakes is more severe.
When Only The Best Will Do: When you seek and only the best will do you are a MAXIMIZER. When you seek the good enough and not worry about consequences you are a SATISFIER.
Maximizers tend to: make more product comparisons, take longer to decide, compare their decisions to others, experience more regret that others, feel less positive about their decisions.
Choice & happiness: Every choice we make is a testament to our autonomy. The choice of when to be a chooser may be the most important choice we have to make. The more control people have, the less helpless they feel, the less depressed they will be.
Time spent with dealing with choice is time spent away from being in life.
Some constrain can afford liberty, while freedom will bring enslavement, it is wise to choose the the constrains.
Missed opportunities: Examine opportunity costs - more the choices, we diminish our subjective experience of benefits, thus we are worse off.
When people have too many options and trade offs, they avoid making decisions options we consider usually suffer from companions with other options
One reason why maximizers are less happy, less satisfied with their lives, and more depressed than satisfiers is precisely because the taint of tradeoffs and opportunity costs washes out much that hshould be satisfying about the decisions they make.
The Problem of Regret: Two factors affect regret a) personal responsibility for the result b) how easily we can imagine the counter factual better alternative.
Regret looms more for the maximizer than the satisfier.
Everything suffers from Comparisons: Curse fof high expectations, curse of social comparisons due to race for status,
Maximizers are more concerned with social comparisons than satisfiers. Increasing available options seems to usually reduce satisfaction.
Whose Fault is it?:Helplessness induced by failure or lack of control causes depression. Depression more common when only the best will do.
What to do about Choice?:
1)Choose when to choose.- think of cost associated with decisions.
2) Be a chooser not a picker -
3)Satisfy more, maximize less
4)Think about opportunity costs of opportunity costs - dont be swayed by new and improved
5) Make decisions non reversible
6) Practice an attitude of gratitude
7)Regret less
8) Anticipate adaptation - focus on how things are as opposed to as they were
9) Control expectations
10) Avoid social comparisons
11)Learn to love constrains
This book is worth the read, to hammer home the point of embracing a satisfaction based life, and how to learn to love constrains. BUY THIS BOOK, which was voted as a TOP 10 book for the year by Business Week to understand why" less is more, and how to increase the satisfaction in your life."
Mahipal Lunia
www.TheRenaissancePath.com







