The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
Posted on April 27th, 2005
Making decisions can really screw you up. It is probably screwing people up already without their even realizing it, just by virtue of the fact that there seem to be more and more choices to pick from. The Paradox of Choice looks at how this damage can occur if you don't have your priorities right, like not regretting a decision after you've made it, being smart about the distinction between picking the absolute best and picking something that's merely adequate, and-- to borrow from Richard Carlsons' book-- not sweating the small stuff.
There's a lot of interesting material to get through in this book. For one thing, there's Schwartz' point that having many options to choose from can be a dangerous luxury. It's nice to walk into a grocery store and have literally dozens or more varieties of bread, soup, or countless other products to choose from. But with that volume of selection you also start to think about which product is the best one for you. Swap contexts and the hand wringing is still there, but potentially with larger consequences. If you can't figure out what you really want, you're more likely to regret whatever decision you ultimately end up making.
What are the implications of having so much choice? Check out this quote from the book:
Twenty five years ago, economist Tibor Scitovsky explored some of the consequences of the phenomenon of adaptation in his book The Joyless Economy. Human being, Scitovsky said, want to experience please. And when they consume, they do experience pleasure-- as long as the things they consume are novel. But as people adapt-- as the novelty wears off-- pleasure comes to be replaced by comfort. It's a thrill to drive your new car for the first few weeks; after that, it's just comfortable. It certainly beats the old car, but it isn't much of a kick. Comfort is nice enough, but people want pleasure. And comfort isn't pleasure... Faced with this inevitable disappointment, what do people do? Some simply give up the chase and stop valuing pleasure derived from things. Most are driven instead to pursue novelty, to see out new commodities and experiences whose pleasure potential has not been dissipated by repeated exposure. In time, these new commodities also will lose their intensity, but people still get caught up in the chase, a process that psychologists Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell labeled the hedonic treadmill
I read that and immediately thought of all the people who ran-- literally-- to the nearest Apple Store when the iPod Shuffle was announced. Also about the people that like to brag about the new cellphone or other gadget they just bought, supposedly out of need. The idea that new is always best is deeply ingrained in people's minds.
I wonder if the rich are the most susceptible get tripped up by the so-called "hedonic treadmill."
Here's another quote:
[T]he modern emphasis on individual autonomy and control may be neutralizing and belonging to social groups and institutions-- families, civic associations, faith communities, and the like. There is an inherent tension between being your own person, or determining your own "self," and meaningful involvement in social groups. Significant social involvement requires subordinating the self. So the more we focus on ourselves, the more our connections to others weakens.
That makes me think about all the people you see doing the cellphone walk-and-talk. Smart Mobs talked about this a bit as well-- for the duration of that call, your exchange your focus on your surroundings for focus on a virtual connection to whoever you're talking to. You're not completely oblivious, of course, but you're not quite all there either.