Revised Edition - The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less

This is an excellent book. The author makes some pretty earth shaking assertions, but being a scientist he supports them well with studies he either performed himself or by referring to the ones of other scientists. The book is very easy and fun to read. By reading it, you will learn much about yourself, your friends, society and business in general.

The author's framework includes several dimensions. The first one is that good feelings about good decisions weight much less on our psyche than negative ones associated with bad decisions. Thus, people are more sensitive to losses than gains. Let's say you bought a good soap and a bad shampoo. You would think you could call it even; but apparently most of us can't. We are a lot more bummed out about the bad shampoo than we are excited about the good soap.

The second dimension is the number of choices. The more choices we have, the more likely we are to make a poor choice, and the more aggravated we will get about that poor choice [because there were so many more superior alternatives]. Meanwhile, if we do make a good choice our satisfaction level will not increase as a result of having more choices. The author indicates that good feelings satiate; meanwhile bad feelings escalate. Thus, the number of choice compounds the power of the negative (but not the positive) feelings.

The third dimension is the disaggregation of the population into two separate types of shoppers: the Maximizers and the Satisficers. The Maximizers strive to always make the best choice for every single purchase they make. As a result, they do a lot of research sometimes for the most trivial purchase. They do research before and after a purchase. Thus, they keep on benchmarking their purchases to all the other alternatives they had. This mentality inevitably leads the Maximizers to eventually be dissatisfied with their purchases and question their own decision-making ability. This leads them to doing more research, more comparison, leading to more purchase dissatisfaction. It is a vicious cycle they may not be able to get out of. As you can imagine, the Satisficers are just the opposite. They are more casual about their purchasing. They do a lot less research before making a purchase. And, they certainly do none after making a purchase. For them, most products are essentially equivalent commodities providing the same utility with no implication on their customer satisfaction. Obviously, most of us are somewhat between these two extremes. But, the author discloses an easy test whereby we can measure our tendencies towards being more like a Maximizer or a Satisficer.

The fourth dimension is how the Maximizers and Satisficers handle life and how satisfied are they with it. As you can imagine, Maximizers make better purchases than Satisficers. Information and research do contribute to superior choices. But, paradoxically the Maximizers enjoy their purchases much less than the Satisficers. This has profound implications across many human endeavors as "purchase" is just a proxy for any serious decision we are faced with. The author did some research on MBA students. He found that the Maximizers got job offers that were nearly 20% higher than the Satisficers. Yet, they were much less satisfied with these offers than the Satisficers. Given the Maximizers tendency to continuously benchmark, they probably were also much more likely to change jobs more frequently than the Satisficers. The author also indicated there is a high correlation between Maximizer and depression.

Somehow, the author's work contradicts economic theory. Economists state that the more competition you have the better; as consumers will have more choices at a lower price. But, the author's work suggests there is a diminishing return associated with increasing choices that kicks in way sooner than economists think. Do we really need 85 different toothpastes and soaps?

The author discloses many more contrarian insights that really get you thinking about who you are. If you like this book, you will also like "The Cost of Living" he wrote in 1994, a prescient book on how most aspects of our modern day lives are increasingly affected by economics and commercial profitability considerations. Another interesting book very similar to this one is "The Progress Paradox" by Gregg Easterbrook.

How I got the book:
It was a Christmas present, on my list. I'm serious.

Background:
Barry Schwartz is an American psychology professor who has written extensively on the impact of choice on individuals. He has focused on the impact of having a great deal (perhaps too much) of choices for many of our daily decisions. The Paradox of Choice contains various arguments as to why having too many choices can result in misery and problems rather than happiness and satisfaction. The book is divided into four sections:

I. When We Choose

II. How We Choose

III. Why We Suffer

IV. What We Can Do

The first three sections deal with the nature of making choices and possible negative results from having too many options. The final section presents eleven recommendations on how we can better handle the wide ranges of choices available to us.

The strengths:
There is no question in my mind that this is an important book that everyone should read. Schwartz clearly and comprehensively makes a case that having too many choices, or options, available to us in our lives can lead to unhappiness.

The areas for improvement:
After spending a great deal of time building a case for choice overload, Schwartz spends very little time on possible solutions to these problems. Several of them were foreshadowed throughout the book and the entire list, when put together, isn't very inspiring.

Other points of interest:
Although they aren't addressed in this book, I think this book can shed some insight into the longer term impact of Twitter and of "free" products.

Though the material gets kind of repetitive towards the end, what he DOES present you with is absolutely fascinating. The psychological studies that have shown what makes people happy about decisions and events and how that happiness is affected by simple things like attitude, expectation, and comparisons to others were very thought-provoking. I think he's got the right ideas about not keeping up with the Joneses, or even keeping up with the possible YOUs. Too often nowadays we feel overwhelmed by all the choices we have to make that don't need to be so comprehensive to leave us satisfied with that choice.

I especially can appreciate his jeans buying experience, as I went into the store for some skin lotion this past winter and was dumbstruck by all the different varieties, and didn't know what to buy because they didn't have the plain yellow bottle I remember from my youth, when there were only 2 varieties.

If you are contemplating getting this book and would love a preview I'd suggest going to TED.com and watching his 20 minute speech about this book. I read it while out to sea and thought it was a great read. The majority of the book focuses on how the increasing your options doesn't always increase your happiness.

On a side note, I help younger couples do financial planning and budgeting. This book has several factors that talk about financial investment's and individuals usually not participating due to too many choices. Would definitely suggest to any young couple or young adult (or those who do not plan for retirement).

Choice is a good thing, right?

What says self-determination and autonomy more than our being able to walk into any grocery story and be offered the choice of (note: the following data were dutifully collected by the author during a trip to his local grocery store): 85 different crackers, 285 varieties of cookies (21 of which are chocolate-chip cookies), 13 different sport drinks, 65 box drinks, 75 types of teas and adult drinks, 95 different snack options, 61 varieties of sun protection, 80 different kinds of pain relievers, 40 toothpaste options, 150 lipsticks, 116 types of skin creams, 360 hair care options, 230 types of soup, 275 types of cereal, 22 varieties of frozen waffles, 55 salad bar items...feeling overwhelmed yet? And, that's just (a fraction of) the grocery store!

Welcome to the paradox of choice. As the author so aptly summarizes:
"When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize." (p. 2)

The book offers such a fascinating exploration of the confluence of factors leading to the "dark side" of choice:
"Clearly, our experience of choice as a burden rather than a privilege is not a simple phenomenon. Rather it is the result of a complex interaction among many psychological processes that permeate our culture, including rising expectations, awareness of opportunity costs, aversion to trade-offs, adaptation, regret, self-blame, the tendency to engage in social comparisons, and maximizing." (p. 217)

But, there is hope! After exploring the factors that lead to choice overwhelm, the author offers steps we can take to help overcome the "overload of choice" (pp. 221-235):
1. Choose when to choose
2. Be a chooser, not a picker
3. Satisfice more and maximize less
4. Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs
5. Make your decisions nonreversible
6. Practice an "attitude of gratitude"
7. Regret less
8. Anticipate adaptation
9. Control expectations
10. Curtail social comparisons
11. Learn to love constraints

Hopefully you're now intrigued and inspired enough to make the (wise, wise!) choice to read _The Paradox of Choice_. How else are you going to be able to stay sane during your next trip to the grocery store? ☺

Summary:

While having some freedom of choice is important to our well-being, having hundreds of options to choose from in every aspect of our lives, as we do in the modern world, is bad for us. With too many choices, we feel become anxious about finding the very best one, are burdened with a greater sense of responsibility for the consequences, spend large amounts of time and effort on making decisions, and regret lost opportunities after making our choice. In addition, we experience accommodation that means things we thought would make us much happier really don't, in the long run, as we get used to a new standard of expectations. Striving to make the best decision every time in the face of an onslaught of more options than we can effectively evaluate encourages learned helplessness and depression.

The author recommends making some rules of thumb to limit the effort you put into decisionmaking, such as cutting most decisions down to two options, and considering most decisions nonreversible. He also recommends resolving to find an option that meets your standard of acceptability and then stop, rather than spending large quantities of time and energy ferreting out the absolute best option (which, given the enormous range of possibilities for most choices in the modern world, isn't even possible much of the time).

Quotes lots of studies, including a fair amount from Martin Seligman's work on learned helplessness. If you've read Seligman and other writers on the psychology of happiness, you may find much of this book repetitive, but there should still be some gems you haven't seen before.

This was a good book, although definitely not for the advanced psychology student or professional. The ideas that Schwartz presents would be a great supplement to an introductory course in personality or social psychology, as it presents many of the key terms from those areas. Schwartz's main theory is that we, as a society, are presented with too many choices in our daily lives, and that more choice does not lead to a better quality of life. In fact, he argues that we should be satisfied with `good enough' and not seek to maximize our experiences all the time. The book was very general in nature and was easy to read and understand; the examples he used to illustrate his points were clear and easy to identify with as well. I didn't really learn anything new from the material presented here, but it was a great refresher on the subject and some of the main ideas of psychology in general.

This book is a semi-scholarly look at the effect of our increasing array of choices on our well-being. Barry Schwartz carefully lays out the argument that the number of choices we have today (from flexibility in where to live to how many types of jeans there are to the dizzying array of crackers in the supermarket) detracts from our enjoyment of the decision we actually make, for many reasons.

Many assertions made in the book are supported by well-regarded studies. And we learn interesting concepts about types of decision-makers (maximizers versus satisficers -- those who must have the best versus those who know their criteria and stop their search when something meets those criteria), effects of making decisions (for example, the novelty of what we decide to do or get wears off, so the longer we took to make the choice, the more we're likely to regret it), and the effects of the number of choices presented to us on how, or even whether, we make a choice. Everything is presented in a more or less easy-to-read style.

After a while, however, it seemed that I was reading the same thesis presented over and over, but in a slightly different context. I was glad that he cut the manuscript down from the original (as he stated in the acknowledgements), because to me it still seemed unnecessarily long.

And then he makes kind of a blanket statement that our overabundance of choices is the root cause of our growing dissatisfaction with our lives. While he admits that this is merely what he thinks, based on his review of studies on the subject, and while the thesis does make some sense, I think it's a little simplistic to lay the blame for all the malaise in our society at the feet of overchoice.

Nonetheless, it's an interesting concept that reinforces the old notion that you should want what you have rather than have what you want.

A typical supermarket has more than thirty thousand items. A college catalogue may be characterized as shopping for knowledge. There is no fixed curriculum. Harvard instituted general studies requirements so that the students could talk to each others about their courses. Studies have shown a small array of choice is more satisfying than a larger array.

Decisions for retirement depend upon the options offered by employers. Employees tend to place a portion of their funds in each of the plans offered. Medical patients prefer that others make treatment decisions. They want their doctors to be competent and kind.

Losses have twice as much psychological impact as gains. There is an aversion to loss. Such an aversion is why the concept of sunk costs is a meaningful way to predict human action. People remember experiences at the peak and the end. In making choices people may be divided into two categories, the satificers and the maximizers. Perfectionists, like maximizers, seek to achieve the best. Rules, presumptions, standards, and routines bear upon when and how to make choices.

In a case where there are trade-offs, many people will avoid making a decision. Individuals are not all equally susceptible to experiencing regret. Seeking to avoid regret, a person might fall into inaction. Social comparison and positional competition are discussed by the author. The difference between happy and unhappy people is the ability happy people have of distracting themselves from thinking about negative experiences, rejection and criticism, and moving on.

Rising expectations may cause one to feel disappointed about a particular experience. The success of modernity is bitter-sweet. The problem of excessive choice has to be managed.

Though I rated this book a four star, I think I am a little bit biased against and disappointed of it. In my humble opinion, it's "mass consumer" orientation had limited it's own scope and depth. That directly lowered its overall quality, something I believe the author should be able to deliver better, with his solid academic background in both psychology and economics.

In order to give you a more authoritative review, below please find a copy and paste from the back cover of the book. (but not shown here on the store's editorial review)

"This book is valuable in two ways. It argues persuasively that most of us would often be better off with few options and that many of us try too hard to make the best choices. While making its case, the book also provides an engaging introduction to current psychological research on choice and on well being."

- Daniel Kahneman, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences

In the very case you still dont have a grasp of the value of this book, below please find steps (in the last chapter) about mitigating or even eliminating problems about choices.

1. Choose when to choose

2. Be a chooser, not a picker

3. Satisfice more and maximize less

4. Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs

5. Make your decisions non reversible

6. Practice an attitude of gratitude

7. Regret less

8. Anticipate adaptation

9. Control expectations

10.Curtail social comparison

11.Learn to love constraints

Hope the above can help. No matter what, unless you are a graduate of psychology or economics, it will be quite a good buy!

Schwartz takes an interesting perspective on the decision sciences, exploring not how we could make decisions better, but instead how we can feel better about the decisions we do make.
He explains that we live in a world with overwhelming choice, where every activity from buying a box of cereal to choosing our ideal job offers us an almost unlimited set of options. But although these increased choices often make us better off objectively, they don't necessarily make us feel any better. Instead, we get anxious while making the decision and then feel regret once it's made, wondering if we made the "right" choice. Schwartz helps us understand the psychological underpinnings of our anxieties regarding choice, and then offers some simple but useful suggestions on how we can feel better in the world we live in.
I really enjoyed this book...and as a "maximizer" I found it very helpful. It's a quick read, so if you're at all intrigued by the title then I'd definitely buy it.

Unfortunately, Barry Schwarz is a very smart man that isn't good with stating and backing up his ideas. There is some interesting stuff in here but could be a lot more interesting if it was backed up with more studies and research and even surveys or things like that. Most of the book is just the author talking about the subject and what he thinks about it and going on about it. It makes for easy reading, but it lacks in depth. The book could just as easily be 1/2 it's length and make itself just as useful but twice as efficient. There are better choices out there (pardon the irony), though this book isn't a complete waste of time and as I said, at least it's easy to read.

Author Schwartz, a distinguished psychological researcher, begins with an apparent contradiction: As contemporary Americans, we have more choices than ever before. However, increasing choices doesn't bring pleasure. In fact, we're more depressed than ever before!

Schwartz devotes the entire book to explaining this paradox. What makes the book worth reading is, first, Schwartz's impeccable references to mainstream psychological research. In particular, Chapter 3 "Deciding and Choosing" summarizes a greal deal of decision theory in straightforward, readable language. Anyone embarking on the study of psychology or consumer behavior would do well to read this chapter with care.

And second, Schwartz explains phenomena that we experience every day: buying airplane tickets, visiting grocery stores, and more.

As a former marketing professor and current career consultant, I beleve Schwartz's theory has more relevance for consumer decisions than for life decisions, such as career choices. True, novelty effects wear off (adaptation) and constraints can actually induce satisfaction. But not everyone faces a dazzling array of career choices, potential mates or even health insurance options.

Even so, nine of Schwartz's ten tips for dealing with choice make sense for just about any situation. "Make choices irreversible" does not make sense for careers. Any job or career can end unexpectedly, and I encourage everyone to keep an eye out for new options. And there's a fine line between learning to love constraints, which Schwartz enocurages, and giving up autonomy.

Chapter 2,"New Choices," is the most frustrating. Some topics covered in a few paragraphs actually deserve a whole book, or at least a whole chapter. In fact entire books have been written about choosing medical care -- not choosing doctors, Schwartz carefully points out, but choosing what the doctor will do. This area is quite troubling; while ordinary patients feel baffled when called upon to choose a treatment, many choices are restrained by technicalities or insurance. In Women's Bodies, Women's Minds, Christiane Northrup writes that insurance will cover pills, for instance, but not massage.

The sections on choosing religion, love and identity are equally frustrating -- like getting one bite of chocolate cake without a complete piece. The endowment effect (discussed briefly in the context of money-back guarantees) would seem to act as a natural brake on choices and the decision to choose. And many people don't feel they have as much choice over how they work as Schwartz would suggest.

This is a book to own and re-read, and implications extend to other arenas. For instance, Schwartz cites evidence to show that explaining a decision changes both the content of the decision and subsequent satisfaction with the decision. How does this finding relate to, say, jury decisions involving life and death?

Finally, Paradox of Choice was published in 2004 -- well after 9/11. Most people I know feel their choices have been constrained a great deal in the last few years. Travel has become more of a hassle and jobs are scarcer. So are we happier? Readers can decide for themselves.

.

This is a fascinating discussion of the implication of research in various fields, summarized for the non-scientific reader. We live in a society of economic competition which assumes if you give people enough choice, then competition between our various options will result in the "best" surviving in the market--not just the best products, but the best schools, careers, political parties, etc. Our society also assumes that the more options we have to select from, the more satisfied we will be. Schwartz brings all these assumptions into question. First of all, many of us are on choice overload. Do we really want to invest all the time and anxiety that many of us spend to come away with the *best* pair of shoes or the *best* lampshade? Will we really be happier as a result? Furthermore, the way we really make our selections is not nearly as logical as most of us would like to think. I came away thinking that life is too short to spend it making up my mind.

Faced with too many choices, Schwartz has stumbled in his erudite and well-reasoned attempts to illustrate the dilemmas of too many choices too often for too many people in a too affluent society.
"As the number of choices we face increases, freedom of choice eventually becomes a tyranny of choice," Schwartz intones one page from the end of his book. Maybe that's why America, the land of choice, has always limited itself to two major political parties rather than a profusion of ideologies and opinions.
If choice is good in the marketplace, surely it is good for politics. Schwartz says he "found 85 different varieties and brands of crackers." Didn't it occurred to him that if America has cracker democracy, it should also have 85 different varieties and brands of political parties? If it's good for the marketplace, why not for politics?
The key, which he passes over briefly, is found in his third chapter when he says cigarette manufacturers in the 1930s "discovered that smokers who taste-tested various cigarette brands without knowing which was which couldn't tell them apart." The result, he says, was "the practice of selling a product by associating it with a glamorous lifestyle."
It's the foundation of modern marketplace. People who are satisfied with their lives don't spend their time worrying about whether they have the most elegant, tasty, healthy or socially responsible cracker; instead, they buy and use the cracker that meets their needs. Is this possible? Well, years ago I worked with a former executive from Kraft foods who once explained that Kraft factories produced 90 percent of the macaroni and cheese sold in America. Some was sold under the Kraft name; much was sold as private brands. Yet advertising tells people there are differences. Gasoline? It's all the same, according to people who run refineries; however, look at the advertising for gasoline.
If you look at the hands producing vehicles, electronics, clothing and dozens of other consumer products, you realize much of the content comes from people who are paid pennies per hour to produce products according to ISO 9000 standards. The glamorous lifestyle choices that are so confusing comes from advertising.
Want an IBM notebook? Cisco router? Sun workstation? Hewlett-Packard printer? All are manufactured by Solectron, the largest contract manufacturer in the world. You can still buy a new GE and RCA television, though GE hasn't made a TV since 1987 and RCA doesn't exist as a company; both are brand names for Thomson, the French electronics company. In other words, you're buying the product of one manufacturer.
The key element is not the advertising glitter, nor the brand name of the product, it is whether a product meets your needs. I've driven a Jaguar, a truly magnificent car; but, my needs are best satisfied by a 1984 Volvo station wagon. In other words, my Volvo meets my needs -- my personal needs are not what advertisers say will make me happy or a car advertisers claim will raise the envy level of my neighbors.
Schwartz offers a valuable introduction to the paradoxes of choice as muddled by advertising, his observations are relevant and telling but his conclusions are hollow. He's as much a prisoner of the "glamorous lifestyle" image as anyone. It's a great book to read if you keep this in mind; think of him in terms of providing an ISO 9001:2000 product and decide whether it meets your needs.
Perhaps, though, I'm wrong in my assessment; maybe Schwartz is right. If you value intellectual integrity, read it and decide whether his ideas satisfy your experience. Bottom line? Read, then think for yourself and be satisfied with having added to your own knowledge and intelligence. Don't worry about what anyone else tells you to think.

An excellent presentation of Dr. Schwartz's research on choice, as well as a background on other relevant research, namely Kahneman & Tversky's work on Prospect Theory. The ideas about 'maximizers' and 'satisficers' are a useful framing for any modern human, who face countless choices on a daily basis. Recommended reading, these are ideas worth exploring, presented in a highly-readable manner

The unease that has been plaguing me for years now -- I call it "Mall Malaise," finally has scientific basis! It appears to be true - instead of choice bringing more happiness, it actually can frustrate and depress us when taken to the extreme.

Schwartz's easy-to-read analysis of the pluses and minuses of choice, coupled with scientific/psychological studies on why we feel as we do, will help a generation of overachievers and overconsumers find peace in the midst of plenty.

My favorite part -- instead of just explaining the phenomenon, Schwartz provides suggestions on how to mitigate the negative effects of too much choice.

I feel better already.

From the title of Barry Schwartz's "The Paradox of Choice," we know the argument will be that choice perhaps might not always be a good thing. He likens the current situation in America to the small town resident who visits Manhattan for the first time and is overwhelmed by all the activity (choices). Although most of his research involves everything but investing, I was struck by how much his concepts fit perfectly into what would be a good way to approach a successful investing program.

If we put less emphasis on his discussion of whether or not we are better off with more choices (obviously we are), and more on his advice on how to deal with this product of freedom, we get a book that is logically laid out and argues its point well. He first describes the environment in which our choices come at us, then investigates how our inability of deal with them leads to numerous problems - personal, professional, psychological. The most important part of the book is his summation of how we can adapt and learn to live with this new phenomenon.

His solutions, which he says require practice, discipline, and perhaps a new way of thinking, very closely follow the ingredients of good investing:

(1) Choose when to choose - focus on what's important. Be jealous of how you spend your time. Prioritize. Some things just aren't worth the time and effort.

(2) Be a chooser, not a picker - A chooser actively creates directions; pickers take whatever is available. Choosers choose when; pickers select whatever's available. Choosers are people who think actively about the possibilities before making a decision. Choosers reflect on what's important and the consequences of the action. They makes decisions in a way that reflects awareness of what a given choice means about themselves as people. Choosers are thoughtful enough to conclude that perhaps none of the available alternatives are satisfactory. The pickers grab this or that and hope for the best.

(3) Satisfice more and maximize less - (His definition of the two types of people in the world - satisficers and maximizers). "It is maximizers who have expectations which can't be met. It is maximizers who worry most about regret, about missed opportunities...and it is mazimizers who are most disappointed when decisions are not as good as they expected." - (225). The satisficers settle for something that is good enough and don't worry about the possibility that there might be something better. They have criteria and standards. They search until they find an item that fits those standards, then stop. Maximizers are constantly nagged that they haven't chosen the best. Therefore they get less satisfaction out of their choices than do satisficers.

(4) The opportunity costs of opportunity costs - Don't belabor the alternative - beware of getting bogged down in comparisons. If it works, go with it.

(5) Make your decisions nonreversible - Being able to reverse the decision makes you always wanting to do just that. A "the grass is always greener" mentality that leads to failure and unhappiness.

(6) Practice an "Attitude of Gratitude" - Appreciate what is, not what might have been.

(7) Regret less - Realize that one decision isn't going to make or break you. Live with it and move on.

(8) Anticipate adaptation - Don't become dissatisfied with something that was satisfying.

(9) Control expectations - Don't expect too much.

(10) Curtail social comparisons - Don't compare yourself to others.

(11) Learn to love constraints - Set up your own rules and live by them. They help protect you from yourself.

All in all, an excellent course on dealing with an increasingly complex world. Schwartz's next work should be decision making in the investment world. He's already done all the ground work.

I thought this book was most excellent. I took my time reading it but it still went fast. The opening about choosing jeans at the GAP really struck a chord with me. I have had the same dilemma and therefore I only buy two pairs of jeans every 2-3 years. It's confusing. On a business sense this has helped me with providing excellent customer care with AUDIN Web Design. The sense of past loss versus future loss/gains really helped me in my business. I am able to create a pricing model that is able to help my business as well make the customer feel comfortable., If you are a business owner, I suggest you take a look at this book. I've also used this book to evaluate my personal life. Have you been holding onto something because of some (ancient) intrinsic value? This book helped me realized that I have a lot of things that will cost me more in the long run than it would if I just tossed it out. That's the past loss.

This is a book about the mountainous heaps of choices those of us in the modern world face in our daily lives: from surfing the internet, to choosing groceries, to selecting a major, to picking a TV show to watch, to picking a book to read.

I thought this book was simply going to be an analysis and extended complaint about this situation, but it turns out to be much more. The final third of the book is actually more self-help than psychology: it contains very useful practical advice for how to make decisions in the face of oppressively numerous options.

I thought the book to be not only entertaining, but enormously useful. Another title for it could have been "How to Save Yourself a Whole Lotta Time and Money."

I am deeply thankful to live at a time, in a country, where I enjoy unprecedented freedoms; I would never want someone else to restrict my choices. And I'm not sure that the author and I agree on this point.
However, "The Paradox of Choice" has certainly helped convince me that I could benefit from somewhat limiting my own options in certain areas, as I see fit. What I liked best about this book is the fact that its last chapter is devoted to giving readers practical, customizeable ways to control the ways in which choice can sometimes be paralyzing.
Worth skimming, at least.

This book was excellent in 2 ways: first, the style was relaxing, filled with many common situations we can all relate to. (After all...struggling with choices can be as difficult in a supermarket as it is on Wall Street if we let it be.) Second, Schwartz gives sound insight as to how to turn the corner, how to know when not to overanalyse. We learn over time how to make sound decisions, but sometimes we apply too much scrutiny to things that are not so important. We think that trying harder will always lead to something better, so if I think about this decision JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER then more information will present itself and I'll be glad I waited. This makes sense on paper, but in practice it leads to procrastination, doubt and regret. (And we wake up 6 months later having made no move, no decision, and wondering why the "new information" never seemed to appear). Finally, Schwartz presents a framework--not a formula that WILL work and WILL bring success, but a way of looking at decisions that you can apply to even the most mundane decisions you have to make. This is refreshing; so many books have you saying, "that's true" all the way through the book, but in the end offer no solutions, no realistic way to incorporate those ideas into everyday life. The Paradox of Choice is the exception, for it shows how a change in paradigm can lead to totally different results. One great example was in buying food: an example was given where 24 types of jam were for sale and how 6 of them were open for customers to sample. Meanwhile, on the other side of the same store, the same 24 jams were presented with all 24 available to sample. The results? The display with only 6 open outsold the other by 30%--which on paper makes no sense because you'd think that people would say, "how do I know what I like unless I test them ALL?" But this isn't how it really works, for how many of us have the time and energy to stand at a display for half an hour to make a decision as minor as buying one jar of jam? We don't "have time" to make the decision, hence we make none. Whereas when only 6 are open, I feel I can put 5 minutes into it and make a complete decision. (While you could argue that we could do that all along, that we could test any 6 of the open 24 and stop, most of us don't have the discipline to do that.) This is the paradox he writes of: while it seems like having a greater selection creates more freedom, what it really does is give us more to weigh, more to secondguess later. You can think of tons of examples--cell phone plans, laptops, insurance policies. We're afraid to jump in and commit because with our luck the perfect choice will present itself 2 months from now. Schwartz shows us that learning how to make decisions we can live with(and not dwell on afterwards) with can give us the peace of mind we're all so diligently looking for.

This book paints just one example of how our thoughts and our behavior on the same subjects differ greatly. We all think we like the massive number of choices, and we want to go to the shop with the greatest selection and most flexibility.

However, Schwartz gives us evidence, through impeccable research, how the act of choosing between a large number of goods can lead us to be unsatisfied with our ultimate choice and regretful of our decisions.

The only reason that I don't give this a five star review is because his suggestions on how to reduce dissatisfaction when it comes to choosing are un-implamentable. And given his clear research oriented critical thinking skills, Schwartz should have known better.

For some days after reading it, I was quoting bits of it to people - it was really eye opening about many of the whys of all sorts of things that we do. Everything we do all the time involves decisions between choices(get out of bed or sleep in...) and being aware of some of the things that effect those decisions can only be helpful. And how many of the things we just take for granted or assume, it turns out that when they do studies to see if it is true, well, our assumptions are wrong.

And I have been overwhelmed when I try to buy band-aids and I really believe one of the main points, our lives are not improved by 15 or 20 types of bandaids. I like having more than the one or two you got when I was a kid, but 5 choices would be enough...

I took about 9 pages of notes on this book... Schwartz has some interesting things to say about our culture, and how we can often become crippled by too much choice. He manages to be pretty well-balanced, though, and never sounds preachy or bitter. He loves our society, he just realizes that so much freedom is a big responsibility and often difficult to deal with. More than just an academic study, but not entirely a self-help book, he does offer some workable tips on how to overcome being overwhelmed by choice. Definitely a recommended read.

This is a great book. Barry Schwartz attempts to destroy one of our society's sacred cows: The more choices we have, the better off we are. Not so, according to Schwartz. His thesis is that choice is good, and better than having no choice, but at a certain critical point, too much choice can have a net negative effect on our health and psychological well-being. From the mere fact that choice is good, it does not follow, according to Schwartz that more is necessarily better. But what about our central American value-freedom! Schwartz has a response. He says it is a mistake to equate liberty too directly with choice. In fact, he says that too many choices will place a burden on our psychological sense of freedom.

The following prescriptions follow from his thesis:

1. We would be better off if we embraced voluntary restrictions on our freedom of choice.

2. We should look for what is "good enough" rather than "the best".

3. We should lower our expectations about the results of our decisions.

4. We should make nonreversible decisions.

5. We should pay less attention to what others are doing.

After introducing his thesis, Schwartz spends the next 40 pages or so making the case that as our civilization has progressed, we've had vast increases in our options in most areas of our lives, and that the cumulative effect of these increases has had a deleterious effect on our lives. This is the worst part of the book, as I feel he could have reduced this part to half its length. Most of us, upon a moment's reflection, don't need 40 pages to be convinced that we have more choices than ever before. Nevertheless, the book gets better from there.

We have, according to the author, three kinds of utility: experienced utility, remembered utility, and expected utility. If we are to know what we really want, we must have knowledge of all three, and they should each be aligned with one another. But there is a problem, for remembered utility is heavily biased toward remembering the peak feeling of an experience and how it ended to the exclusion of all other factors. This is called the "peak-end" rule. Schwartz also provides us with studies to demonstrate that our predictions-- our expected utility-- are not accurate to how we actually will feel (i.e., our experienced utility). And our foundations for present decisions are memory and expectation. But since neither memory nor expectation are accurate, we have an obvious problem in the decision making process. We also have biases to certain types of information. For example, we rate familiar things higher than unfamiliar things, even if our familiarity has come from only advertising. We are susceptible to anecdotal evidence, especially of the vivid variety, compared to large data sets that contradict the anecdote. We use what's called the "availability heuristic", which means we assume that the easier something is to recall, the more we assume we've encountered it. But salience counts too, and advertisers and the media take full advantage of this fact.

From here, we learn that people are risk averse when it comes to choices that may result in gain, but when it comes to choices that may result in loss, we are more willing to take a chance to prevent the negative feelings associated with that loss. This is all borne out in the studies Schwartz cites. We also learn that people value things they consider theirs, and are unwilling, in most cases, to trade up. Presumably, this is because trading entails both a loss and a gain, but since losses weigh heavier in our minds than gains, we are hesitant to trade. When you consider that we have more choices to select from, and add to this that losses are subjectively considered heavier than gains are, we have an increased burden when it comes to decision-making. Look at all you're giving up in selecting option x!

Another theme that runs thought he book is the distinction between two types of people: maximizers and saticficers. Maximizers are obsessed with choosing "the best" while satisficers are happy choosing what is "good enough". Schwartz recommends that, in an age of nearly unlimited choices, we would do ourselves well to become satisficers. To be a maximizer today is to fill a prescription for anxiety, regret, unhappiness, and second-guessing. He supports this by citing studies that correlated maximizing with having less satisfaction with life, unhappiness, lack of optimism, increased regret, and depression. Schwartz goes out of his way to make clear the distinction between objective results and subjective results with respect to our decisions. Maximizers may do better objectively (e.g., get a cheaper price on a suit), while satisfiers do better subjectively (i.e., are happier with their decision). So who's really maximizing?

Schwartz also explores Martin Seligman's "Learned Helplessness" hypothesis and how we are to reconcile the paradoxical situation of having increased choice, and so increased control, with the empirical fact that people's mental health are not improving as a result. He finds his answer in increased societal expectations and increased individualism which both can lead to self-blame.

I do have disagreement with Schwartz on some minor points. He points out that people underestimate certain causes of death while overestimating others. His explanation: The media. But he doesn't consider the fact that the causes we overestimate are the same causes of death that we had to deal with most often in out evolutionary history. We overestimate homicide and underestimate strokes because homicide was a serious problem (and the data supports this) whereas strokes weren't. We didn't live long enough for strokes to become a problem to be dealt with like homicide would've. So our minds are acutely aware of homicide, so we overestimate its pervasiveness.

He also says that the constraints on other organism's choices come from biology, but with humans these constraints "have to come from culture". He says these biological restraints help animals recognize "food, mates, predators, and other dangers." Is he really denying that biology plays a role in our choice restraints and recognition of "food, mates, predators, and other dangers"? To affirm this is to be ignorant of psychology (Schwartz's field) of the last 20 years or so.

I commend Schwartz for remaining apolitical in the book. That was nice. I kept waiting for him to start making anti-free market policy prescriptions, but he didn't. One does, however, wonder if Schwartz would be supportive of a brand of political conservatism (I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate this claim). For example, he says of satisficers, who are his models for human choice-making, "... a satisfier is not likely to be thinking about a hypothetical perfect world, in which options exist that contain all things they value and trade-offs unnecessary." Wow! It doesn't take much extrapolation to see the consequence of such a view. The word "saticficer" could've easily been replaced the word "conservative" and that sentence would have been just as true. But I digress...

When it's all said and done, this book remains loyal to the empirical data, is air-tightly reasoned, and revolutionary its conclusions. This book will change the way you think. Know thyself.

This book changed the way I approach (or decide not to approach) many choices in my life. It delves into the psychology of choices, specifically how an abundance of choices can have many negative effects on us, contrary to what we may think. To quote the book, "Having too many choices produces psychological distress, especially when combined with regret, concern about status, adaptation, social comparison, and perhaps most important, the desire to have the best of everything -- to maximize."

While focusing on consumerism, many of the points apply to any time a choice is made, such as careers and even romance. Points are made with fascinating anecdotal evidence, and are clearly explained.

Definitely a great read.

I liked the book, but it was so tedious!!!! Schwartz is compelled to repeat himself time and time and time again. Although I find the concept of Maximizers and Satisficers fascinating and am glad I was introduced to the subject, I felt as though he was hitting me over the head with examples being reiterated repeatedly. As my English teacher summed it up - it would be a lot better if it were 50 pages long and in my opinion would have covered all the same points in that number of pages as well. Albeit, it's an easy read.

All in all, I'm glad I read it. Frankly, his 20-30 YouTube video (see his website) sums up the book perfectly. I could have saved a lot of hours reading if I had known of the video first!!! (Albeit his lazy attire leaves a lot to be desired - I think he must have just come in from a run and didn't have time to shower before his presentation. Either that, or he's a satisficer with a low expectations, but being a true satisficer, hasn't spent much time worrying about it). ;>

The point of the book is interesting and warrants the read, but it is a bit redundant at times. The biggest takeaway for me was the idea of a satisficer versus a maximizer. Although, the book seems to argue being a satisficer is the optimal choice, I can't help but believe it is best to be a combination of both. There are certain decisions in life when being a maximizer is simply foolish. For example, deciding which soap to buy. Clearly this is a decision not worth pouring over all of the available options and their respective pros and cons. However, there are other decisions in life where it is best to be a maximizer. Choosing where to go to school, which profession to pursue, who your doctor should be, etc. I believe the big decisions in life should be made with the mindset of a maximizer. The little choices we make day-to-day are understandably best made as a satisficer.

If you ever pontificate or over analyze any/every decision in your life buy this book now.

Choice is sucking up our spare time. We seem to gobble up more choices like hungry pig and yet it clogs up our life. We don't know when to stop taking on more choice.

The advice of the book is simple. Decide what you care about and enjoy those decisions (even elongate them - he calls this "Maximize"). If you find yourself making decisions about things you don't care passionately about then he recommends that you "Satisfice" - ie make a good enough decision (take advice from others that care about this subject, do what you did last time etc)

There is lots of great tips in this book.

If you are unsure try this video

[...]

It's not the full deal, but it gives you a good intro.

This book was an inspiration while I was creating my board game. It's great to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the human mind.

I think book this is closely linked to understanding personal happiness in this crazy world in which we live.

Highly recommended.

I have just read a review of this book by Virginia Postrel. Her major point is that the great variety of choices we now have in many areas of life, increase our freedom and happiness. In the course of arguing in this way she makes an implicit argument for the intelligence and reason of most people. They will not spend years worrying about a choice in any area which means nothing to them. They will not spend years choosing a new product when they already have one in this particular line that suits them.
Still despite Postrel strong arguments(And there are others)it is clear that Barry Schwartz has touched upon a central and important theme of human life in our time. The excess of choices and options within an area and between areas mean that we are often left confused and disturbed.
Here however I think that there is another point that Postrel makes which Schwartz is also aware of i.e. that being experienced in a particular realm teaches us how to cut out whole areas which otherwise would have disturbed us. I think a very good example for myself is in dealing with the Internet where it is possible to chase for hours one kind of misleading path to no- solution of the problem. With experience comes a knowledge of areas of interest, of sites that can be relied on, on how to use our time wisely.
However it does seem to me that there is a major cultural point about the nature of humanity, which is given in this world of superabundanct choice. I may be wrong but it seems to me that most people today are more scattered, more disordered and less able to really concentrate for long hours on one task. That is to say the whole background of our lives is endless distractions which make it difficult for us to shut ourselves off, and concentrate for the best type of work.
This is a thought- provoking work . I have unfortunately touched upon only a small number of the problems and choices in thought it raises.

Some parts get a little complicated for just a quick read. But, at 240 pages this is a a fun look at the societal and psychological issues we face.

The areas explored are summed up with the following:

"...our experience of choice as a burden rather than a privilege is not a simple phenomenon. Rather it is the result of a complex interaction among many psychological processes that permeate our culture, including rising expectations, awareness of opportunity costs, aversion to trade-offs, adaptation, regret, self-blame, the tendency to engage in social comparisons, and maximizing."

The last chapter goes on to highlight and explain how we can try to avoid these issues (regret leading to depression, leading to suicide; comparing to neighbors and having regret; post-decision regret). A lot of it has to do with accepting "good enough".

Again, I recommend the book because it may help you see your decisions a little differently. At the same time, it helps understand the psychology behind others' decisions.

It is rare to find a book that perfectly crystalizes a nagging feeling that you've had for a long time, but could never put into words. The Paradox of Choice did just that for me. It isn't much of an exaggeration to say this book changed my life. Reading it makes you keenly aware of the folly of rampant consumerism, and just being aware of why the purchases you make may not bring you the satisfaction you hoped for puts you halfway to solving the problem. Letting go of the need to have the absolute best of everything is very liberating.

The Paradox of Choice is a very interesting and great book written by Barry Schwartz. The author discusses the number of choices a person faces in life. He shows how we make the decisions we do given the many options we have. He then leads into the problems that are created by these numerous options. I love the practical application and examples of this book. After reading every chapter, I could identify how and where in life I use strategies found in the book to make decisions. However, I did not like the last chapter of this book. It tries to suggest ways that we can make better choices so we do not suffer and become overwhelmed. The chapter did not give very many or specific ways to overcome any of the problems. It seemed to conclude that they are always going to be problems we must fight. It was a depressive ending to the book. Overall though, I would still recommend reading this book to understand and gain insight into how decisions are made and to become aware of the dangers of too many choices.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The chapters are well organized, and they're easy to digest. I am using what I learned from this book in my daily dilemma and have found it simplified my life tremendously. This is definitely one of my favorite books.

The fact that some choice is good doesn't necessarily mean more choice is better. There is a cost to an overload of choice. Not all choice enhances freedom - it may impair freedom by taking time and energy better devoted to other matters. And, we would be better off seeking what is 'good enough' instead of seeking 'the best.'

A typical supermarket carries over 30,000 items. Author Schwartz' local supermarket is not particularly large, yet he found 85 different varieties and brands of crackers, 285 varieties of cookies (21 chocolate chip cookie options, 20 varieties of Goldfish, etc.). However, buying the wrong brand of cookies doesn't have significant consequences. items costing more money and meant to last do, however. His local consumer electronics store had 45 different car stereo systems, and 50 different speaker sets, 42 different computers, 27 different printers, 110 different televisions, etc. And, at their higher prices, choices start to have serious consequences.

College students are not immune - Harvard's 'core curriculum' has 32 courses in Foreign Cultures, 44 in Historical Study, 44 in Science, etc. - as part of about 40 majors.

Meanwhile, grocery shopping ranks next to last in terms of pleasure provided participants, and the trend is downward. Another study compared students tasting/rating either 30 or 6 chocolates - the latter were more satisfied.

Choices are expanding - into health care, pensions, treatment plans, religions, etc.

Today's sitcoms have about 4 fewer program minutes than a generation ago.

A key insight that has shaped modern advertising came to cigarette manufacturers in the 1930s. They found that smokers who taste-tested various cigarette brands without knowing which was which couldn't tell them apart. Manufacturers had to either make their brand more distinctive, or make consumers think it was - the latter of course being a much easier task. Hence, selling a product by associating it with what's familiar.

To choose among 200 brands of cereal or 5,000 mutual funds, we must first choose between 10,000 web sites offering to make us informed consumers - many with misleading or incomplete information.

'Anchoring' presents another potential distortion. Eg. offering a larger capacity deluxe bread maker for $429 makes a $279 model seem more attractive and boosts its sales.

When choosing among alternatives with risk, we prefer small, sure gains to large, uncertain ones - even though the expected outcomes may be larger for the latter. Susceptibility to decision error increases as the number and complexity of decisions increases.

Schwartz believes that the goal of maximizing is a source of great dissatisfaction - especially in a world of overwhelming choices.

The last half of the book is boring and not worth reading.

If you've ever bought something to keep up with the "Joneses," then this book is for you. Schwartz has a unique argument--that having more choice is making us less happy--and provides many examples to prove his points. Overall, it is an entertaining and enlightening read. Unlike authors who write on similar topics, Schwartz provides a clear and detailed set of solutions. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that it seemed a little repetitive to me at the beginning. If you read a lot of books on consumerism in America, you might feel the same way, but it is still worth a read all the way through for the unique ideas in the final half of the book.

A glance at the compelling thesis presented on the back of this book made me wonder why I'd never heard of it before. Now I know why: Mr. Shwartz questions a prevailing cultural paradigm in a way that just makes you feel very uncomfortable! Ultimately though, if you're willing to take the plunge, you'll gain a greater understanding of how derive more satisfaction and less anxiety from life. However, the approach of simply limiting choice may be a little materialistic. From a Christian perspective, it seems that the outlined negative consequences of abundant choice can be diffused by spending time in prayer. Also, this book gets redundant about halfway through. Overall an awesome investment of time and money given the great importance of the subject matter.

Professor Schwartz does an excellent job of covering the topic of choice and the impact it has on consumer behavior. There comes a point when too many choices is counterproductive and this is well illustrated in this book. It is well documented with plenty of research results. All one has to do is check out the choices presented by Crest Toothpaste to realize that more choices isn't necessarily desirable. Besides, what's at work here anyway? More choices for consumers or grabbing more shelf space to crowd out competitors? Professor Schwartz provides some great advice on dealing with choice. I've read it twice. You should too.

Although this book puts forth an interesting and common sensical idea re: choice, I completely agree with the 1-2 star reviewers of this book; it's something that would have been more appropriate for a magazine article, but not a book. Do yourself a favor, if you would like to get the gist of this book, simply read the 1-2 star reviews, trust that it is indeed the core concept of the book and then use your valuable time for living. Now that is a simple choice.

This book is a conscience awakening. "The Paradox of Choice" is insightful, well written and informative. Throughout the book Schwartz has studies that back up his findings, and further validate his argument of why more is less,however he could of condensed the book down from 226
page to 100 pages thus adopted the paradox of "less is more."

Schwarts focuses on two personality types. First, is the Maximizer. A person that is in constant quest for the "best". The back lash of searching for the best is the residual effect of never being safisfied or happy after the decision is made based on fear of regret. The opposite of a maxizer is a Satisficer. A satisficer is content with something that is "good enough" which is based on personal standards. They are able to make a choice and be safisfied and move on with their life.

I learned from reading this book that as a whole we should all strive to be a satisficer, not a maximizer. The terminology throughout the book was very informative and educational. Schwarts writing is intriguing and gives you the feeling of "ahh...now I get it!!", even if it seemed to be common sense. He has a brilliant and insightful way of opening your mind to look at life differently. The book is focused on how individuals in todays modern society are over whelmed by choices, but gives an 11 step solution at the end of the book on how to achieve a happer and more fulfilling life.

I've been trying to express to friends that the problem with dating in a big city (NYC - where I live) is that everyone is paralyzed with indecision. I've tried to explain that the rise of the internet as a gateway to connect to people with whom you would otherwise never come in touch has led to higher overall rates of depression and isolation. Then... I found this book: I was so relieved that I wasn't just crazy :) If you live in NYC (or any densely populated city) or have used the internet in the past 5 years, you should be able to relate to, and will likely agree with, its basic premise.

Schwartz elegantly explains why it can be advantageous to make decisions in life without knowing all the information. It is not an excuse to dismiss reason or evidence, but rather a strategy of "choosing our battles." Most interesting to me were the accounts of marketing studies showing that consumers prefer a smaller selection of familiar choices to a larger collection containing more "optimal" choices. The parallels to everyday decision-making in other arenas make an important analogy.

I read about 4 books per month and this is hands down one of the best ones I've read in the past year. Packed with information, yet enjoyable to read, I had a hard time putting this one down.

I use the ideas I learned in this book almost every day, in my own life and in my work with helping clients.

Schwartz skillfully illustrates how the sheer abundances of choices we have in life these days leads to stress and paralysis of action. He describes looking at 40 types of jeans and going home with none, overwhelmed by the choices and time it would take to go through all of them. We can all relate to this, right?

As a business psychologist and organizational consultant I use Schwartz's concepts all the time. Whenever a client tells me that their goal is to improve sales, one of my first questions is, "How many choices do customers have in this particular category?"

Psychological research tells us that the perception of choice and control is important, and Schwartz highlights the need to limit the number of choices for maximum effectiveness.

I'm happy to think of how many individuals and businesses have and will benefit from Schwartz's book.

Schwartz has a compelling argument: the more options we have for each choice, the higher our expectation and the longer the decision process. For a number of people (especially those that like to 'maximize' every decision) this can be a very frustrating and potentially debilitating. He reports on studies that show how people are actually better off (more satisfied with outcomes) when given fewer choices. Clearly, this concept has been understood for a while, especially in marketing circles where the goal has been to 'take advantage' of customer behavior. However, Schwartz takes the perspective of the individual or consumer and shows how we can be manipulated and perhaps 'left hanging' when the array of choice is bewildering. This book has a very practical approach to the issue, ending with suggestions on how to address the challenges presented with having too much choice.
I bought a copy for myself, then ended up buying two more copies because I kept loaning it out to others who reported that a third party ended up taking it, instead of giving it back.

Informative and realistic - great book! The thing I liked most about this book was the fact that it kept a consistent theme throughout (i.e., consistent references that did not require me to search previous pages for definitions). It is true that there are a lot of choices to be made each day and knowing what type of decision maker you are can help make those selections easier and more fulfilling. I particularly liked the way he explained the correlation of the level of regret associated with a maximizer vs. a satisficer and his references related to risk aversion.

I actually do think that many people suffer because of too many choices. I have seen this in upper middle class people agonizing over school choices for their grade schooler. A big part of the problem is that they CAN afford private school, or to move to a neighborhood with better public schools, but which one? They end up second guessing themselves and changing their mind every year and causing a lot of misery for themselves and the child.

That said, the book takes a few fairly simple ideas, repeats them several times and doesn't offer much help. There is some research (not clear how much it really applies) that shows that having more choices makes you less happy with the choice you make, having more choices increases the chance you will delay deciding, etc. There are a few ideas in the back that may help some people with decisions - things like narrowing choices quickly to 2 main choices, learning to accept good enough for many of life's choices, etc. I suspect some of these are easier to say than do. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book.

Interesting take on whether or not a lot of choice is a good or bad thing. Much of it makes sense, but sometimes leans too far toward "settling for good enough" or "satisficing" as he terms it.
Worth reading and adopting some of the philosophies and tactics.

Truly outstanding. Rigorous analysis, impeccable organization and logic, clear writing. Rich but not complex in its interweaving of economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology and applied wisdom. Rewarding to read in full, unlike so many books with a single excellent idea that a one-page synopsis could express. One of my favorite books of the last several years, suitable for anyone with intellectual curiosity or a personal need to make decisions more easily or with greater satisfaction.

In The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz provides evidence that we are faced with too many choices on a daily basis. He also presents impressive facts of psychological evidence about how more looking actually makes us less happy with our final decisions. In the beginning of the book it talks about shopping at a grocery store and the number of options there. As the number of options increases, the psychological stakes rise accordingly. This book is helpful in many ways; it shows us how to reduce stress in decision-making. Faced with numerous options in today society Schwartz provided information on leaving your losses behind and focus on the future. He also touched on the topic of regretting, because it's hard to go through life regretting every decision you made because it might not have been the best possible decision. I recommend this book to anyone whose been faced with decision making.
After reading The Paradox of Choice I realized the over-whelming amount of choices I came across within the next hour, and how I had a difficult time deciding on what to do. Even with the number options I had to choose from I couldn't pin point on just one. This book is a tool that everyone should use in coping with day-to-day decisions.

While I did like the book in the beginning, and I saw that most of what he was saying was true, I realized that there was too much fluff in this book. This subject is not so worthy of exploring it deeply.

I mean, it's pure common sense when you think about it. It is clear that the author wanted to make the book long, especially considering that most people think that the longer the book is, the more valuable it must be. Even though the contents of this book are good, he still over-complicates this issue and delves too deep into it.

The point of this book could be summarized in one big article and everyone would get the point. It seems that the author had stumbled upon this niche that no one has written about and wanted to make money off of it.

All the information in this book rings true and a great read for those who want to simply and know that the perfect choice is not always the one that makes us the happiest if you spend all your time dwelling on finding it. If you spend a lot of time making decisions you may want to consider picking up this book. You won't be disappointed. Nice read.

Great book, soon as I got it I sat and read for hours, tons of great practical and real world knowledge that I think just about if not everybody can or could as some point in time relate to. For someone who never really was a big reading fan this is defininately a book that I would read more than once and enjoy it at that.

This book is a worthwhile read. It defines the problem of too much choice and offers some ways to deal with it. Delineating the difference between "maximizers" and "satisficers" gave me a new frame of reference for determining decision making processes. Although this book is geared toward the life of the individual I think the principals in the book can be applied to many business situations. I have to admit I was waiting for him to make the point that the government needs to regulate the number of choices we have - he never does (thankfully).

Truly outstanding. Rigorous analysis, impeccable organization and logic, clear writing. Rich but not complex in its interweaving of economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology and applied wisdom. Rewarding to read in full, unlike so many books with a single excellent idea that a one-page synopsis could express. One of my favorite books of the last several years, suitable for anyone with intellectual curiosity or a personal need to make decisions more easily or with greater satisfaction.

In The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz provides evidence that we are faced with too many choices on a daily basis. He also presents impressive facts of psychological evidence about how more looking actually makes us less happy with our final decisions. In the beginning of the book it talks about shopping at a grocery store and the number of options there. As the number of options increases, the psychological stakes rise accordingly. This book is helpful in many ways; it shows us how to reduce stress in decision-making. Faced with numerous options in today society Schwartz provided information on leaving your losses behind and focus on the future. He also touched on the topic of regretting, because it's hard to go through life regretting every decision you made because it might not have been the best possible decision. I recommend this book to anyone whose been faced with decision making.
After reading The Paradox of Choice I realized the over-whelming amount of choices I came across within the next hour, and how I had a difficult time deciding on what to do. Even with the number options I had to choose from I couldn't pin point on just one. This book is a tool that everyone should use in coping with day-to-day decisions.

While I did like the book in the beginning, and I saw that most of what he was saying was true, I realized that there was too much fluff in this book. This subject is not so worthy of exploring it deeply.

I mean, it's pure common sense when you think about it. It is clear that the author wanted to make the book long, especially considering that most people think that the longer the book is, the more valuable it must be. Even though the contents of this book are good, he still over-complicates this issue and delves too deep into it.

The point of this book could be summarized in one big article and everyone would get the point. It seems that the author had stumbled upon this niche that no one has written about and wanted to make money off of it.

All the information in this book rings true and a great read for those who want to simply and know that the perfect choice is not always the one that makes us the happiest if you spend all your time dwelling on finding it. If you spend a lot of time making decisions you may want to consider picking up this book. You won't be disappointed. Nice read.

Great book, soon as I got it I sat and read for hours, tons of great practical and real world knowledge that I think just about if not everybody can or could as some point in time relate to. For someone who never really was a big reading fan this is defininately a book that I would read more than once and enjoy it at that.

This book is a worthwhile read. It defines the problem of too much choice and offers some ways to deal with it. Delineating the difference between "maximizers" and "satisficers" gave me a new frame of reference for determining decision making processes. Although this book is geared toward the life of the individual I think the principals in the book can be applied to many business situations. I have to admit I was waiting for him to make the point that the government needs to regulate the number of choices we have - he never does (thankfully).

I was expecting alot more from this book than it provided. That isn't bad, but in an effort to set expectations (which this book advocates) I wanted to write a review to let people know what it does and doesn't do.
The Paradox of Choice is a great introductory read if you have never heard of things like Opportunity Costs, Anchoring, Escalation of Commitment, etc. It does a great job of outlining various psychology realities around why choice actually creates more anxiety and depression. If you want to learn about these topics in simple, plain English, this is your book.
If you know about these topics already, have taken Psych 101 somewhere, and want to understand best practices of companies and individuals managing choice, this is going to be a disappointment. Of 11 chapters, only 1 was dedicated to how to effectively manage the barrage of choices one is faced with everyday in this society. And that chapter was pretty skimpy on specifics.
What I found lacking in this book were specific examples of how individuals effectively handle choice in a positive, proactive way. For example, what is the decision process of a satisficer (a term used in the book) for going to college or buying a car?
Furthermore, I would have liked to have seen this author talk about ways we as consumers and businesspeople can influence companies to begin to edit down the number of brands, products, and therefore choices we have to make on a regular basis.
Granted, holding this book to such a high standard might just be my desire to see this topic delved into further given the importance of it to our satisfaction with our everyday lives, but I still was expecting more. At least from a hardcover.

An excellent, eye-opening book on how an over-abundance of choice can actually harm us. Although it does get redundant because of the countless examples provided, Schwartz does this to further prove his theory that the amount of choice is overwhelming us in every aspect of our lives. Schwartz could have written this just as well as an article, not a whole book. Nevertheless, still a must-read that would forever change one's perspective of society

Schwartz has interesting insight and the book is easy to read. Though some readers may find that Schwartz's ideas are somewhat old fashioned, this is coming from a reader that appreciates the choices available to him. But still I must urge people to read this book because you will begin to look at the choices you make more criticaly than prior to reading The Paradox of Choice. I will admit even though I do not agree with all of Schwartz's theories his knowledge on the psychological point of view of choices are invaluable.

I think the author has a serious problem making choices, and assumes everyone else does too. Since he could not decide which words to use to convey a simple concept, he used all the words he could find; over and over and over. The information in the book is intuitive, if you have ever made a choice. The book, if condensed to a reasonable five pages, might be helpful for middle school students.

The reason I am giving it two stars instead of one is that the author did help me see yet another way advertisers are able to prey on the trusting.

It's terrible! We have too many choices to make! Oh, the burden!

I read one fourth of the book, could not take it, and jumped to the last chapter to see if there were any conclusions I agreed with. Nope. This guy just keeps saying satisfiers are good with the choices, maximizers have a tough time.

I don't agree. I'd rather have free enterprise and lots of choices, than a very limited selection. I agree with Gladwell's article republished in "What the dog saw", that says there is not a one "perfect for all" spaghetti sauce, but several. Why should we get less options so that a few obsessive don't struggle with choice?

I enjoyed this book as a twenty-something who is in the frame of mind of having a massive plethora of big life decisions at my doorstep. I was pleased that Barry Schwartz had plenty of interesting research and anecdotes to back up his theories, balancing science with real world and easy-to-understand examples. If you are finding yourself overwhelmed, this might be what you need to realize you aren't alone, and that there are actions you can take to overcome feelings of paralyzation.

If your like me and want to understand why making choices are so difficult and what you really gain from deliberating for so long you should definitely read this book. It is very enlightening, easy to read, informative, and fairly concise with plenty to back it up. Highly recommended.

Are you a satisficer, maximizer or a perfectionist? I would have preferred that Schwartz not use the same examples thruoughout. I feel sorry for those who are paralyzed by too many choices. Schwartz states that he is the type that when he is "two hundred pages into reading a book, I force myself to finish it." Me too and crap, this quote is on page 162 and I have 70 more pages to slog through looking for nuggets.

I salute Barry Schwartz for tackling a subject which is at the heart of so much of the current malaise of modern American consumer culture. However, I find it interesting how Schwartz underscores the whole 'overabundance-of-choice dilemma' by deluging the reader with an exhaustive taxology of somewhat self-evident examples and a litany of academic studies. A healthy dose of humor and more informal slice of rich anectodes might have illuminated the subject, but instead Schwartz laboriously overstates his 'too-much-choice-is-bad' thesis ad infinitum--the irony is that her 'over-chose' his material.

The first third of this book consists of a boatload of statistics and observations about how many choices we have in modern life. A series of self-evident facts, signifying nothing.
The next third of the book suggests that choice is sometimes counterproductive and stressful. I have often observed myself that there are eight varieties of Cap'n Crunch in the store and the original is the only good one. Choice is not always good. Kinda knew that.
The Third Act, which is what I had hoped would be insightful, reads like a Wayne Dyer greeting card - chill out, breathe, choose what's important, connect with your source, hang in there baby!
In response to the stresses of life, one can only chill out so much before starting to ask harder questions about the nature of capitalism and whether our materialist culture is a disgrace to human history. These are the real issues that books like this are supposed to sort out for us through wise, critical, historical analysis. There is something wrong with *America* - not *me*. I just work here. Sure I can take a bath and eat whole wheat bread and drink more water, but as a citizen of the world, I wanna know why it's all screwed up and what I can do about it.

This book is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. The basic premise of this book is that the more choice we have, the more anxious we become about the decisions we have to make. Think for example, about how many different stores there are in a mall. You want to buy a dress shirt, but which store do you go into? Will the Gap have a better deal than Banana Republic? Or maybe Macy's or Lord & Taylor will have a better shirt. But then, which shirt do you pick once you decide what store to walk into? All these decisions prove to be quite exhausting, despite our unconscience ability to make such them on a constant basis.

Don't believe me cause Im just another dude? Well, it was required reading in my psychology class on personal security at The Ohio State University. Had a great professor...this book changed how I make decisions in everyday life.

The author's point is that having too many choices doesn't improve life; and, in fact, it can even be detrimental. It takes extra energy and thought to choose from among the dizzying array of choices that surround us; but that effort doesn't yield a corresponding increase in satisfaction with our choice and often yields _less_ satisfaction than if we had made a decision faster. That's it. That's the whole book. A person could read the first two chapters, the last two chapters, skip the (largely repetitive and very pedantic) middle of the book and still get the basic take-away message.

One reviewer "ascii3hex" said did a great job summarizing the authors main point:

"It takes extra energy and thought to choose from among the dizzying array of choices that surround us; but that effort doesn't yield a corresponding increase in satisfaction with our choice and often yields _less_ satisfaction than if we had made a decision faster. That's it."

Thank you for a great summary! Problem is, if that IS the books assumption, I find it to be a flawed assumption that is flat wrong in many cases.

According to this author then, I ought not to be reading reviews, much less writing this review right now (and I thought critical thinking was a good trait). Chew on that for a second....if you are a frequenter of the store reviews every now and again then you are apparently doing it all wrong. Gasp*#!%*. Well, I do often read the store and other reviews of books and products I hear about, before buying them. After taking in a few reviews, I make a choice whether to actually read the book or not. Many times reading reviews before buying a product has saved me from buying an obvious lemon. Is it extra work? Yes, but I don't feel the need to complain about it, because for one, it is MY CHOICE to do so, and for two is often REWARDING.

If I did as the author suggested, I would have already ordered his book and not wasted my time making the decision. I personally think that more information is good, so while I can understand where he is coming from, it just doesn't ring true for me. In just about all of the decisions I make, the effort DOES LEAD TO A HIGHER LEVEL OF SATISFACTION. Thats why I do it, duh! I know, for ex if I just walk over to wal mart and buy a piece of junk, most likely it's gonna last less than a year, will wind up wasting our Earth's precious raw materials, I'll have to toss it out, and then I'm right back where I started. I would call that the lazy mans approach actually.

Do I go buy another one from Wal Mart again? NO, already tried that and look where it got me!!! But if not that , what else? Who will figure out for me my other options? Oh no, what ever will I do? I'm feeling depressed and overwhelmed. Sorry, I'm being overdramatic, but I find it hard to take this premise seriously especially when there are far more pressing issues in the world to write books about like what contribution can we make to help people who do not have enough food to eat in Asia and Africa? I get the sense that the author is feeling sorry for himself, but to be mad about true choice is not healthy. I do not blame the author for his choice to write the book, but by his own logic, the extra choice of what to read would actually create more maximizers.

More choice is better, and yes it requires a small investment of time. I've learned from experience that it's better to invest the time at the getgo and not always be buying stuff that breaks right away like I used to. Does it take a bit more effort, yeah, but not very much at all. Does it payoff to do it? Well, yes, when the chairs I buy last 25 years and then can be repaired down the line if and when they break...think how many decisions, trips to the store, and money I saved. I don't want to buy and throw away!

There are so many areas where more info is better - take food labeling for example. I personally read labels, and am happy to know what ingredients I am putting in my own body and my family's. I believe we are lucky to understand nutrition and have the choice to not eat the various chemicals now in processed foods if we would rather not. Does the author think its best just to grab something off the shelf and not read the description? Well, probably not, but as you can see his thesis is not holding up, it is quickly sinking under deeper analysis.

Back to book reviews. Is it better to spend a half hour finding the right book and then enjoying 90% of the books you read (hundreds of hours), or just quickly grabbing a book in five minutes when you feel like reading and then enjoying 20% of the books (again, many hours)? I would rather spend the time out front and be happy with my decision. If I'm NOT happy with my decision, chances are I did not spend enough time researching or did not know the right place to look. That has been true in my life whether we're talking about books, jeans, or what kind of windows to get in my new house. Granted, way more time would be spent on windows than on jeans, but my point is - there can be no way that less TRUE choices (not same product different marketing/packaging) is better. Is consumer reports garbage? Why is it wrong to want to like the products you buy and have them last? I am not advocating spending hours being paralyzed over a toothpaste choice, but then again, maybe it would be good to educate yourself and your family on the benefits pros cons of whether fluoride is needed or not (there is currently a fierce debate in the medical community what level of fluride is hurtful) or sodium laurl sulfate (a foaming agent in many toothpastes which causes canker sours / cold sours).

I like choice and I have no problem making them.

PLUS, I ENJOY READING REVIEWS AND TAKING IN THE VARIOUS THOUGHTS AND IDEAS : ) WHERE IS THAT FACTORED INTO THE MODEL?

Bottom line - yes you can spend too much energy on certain choices, but at the same time the exact opposite scenario is just as likely to have a negative effect **if not moreso** because when the product turns out to be not what you wanted or breaks right away then you are back to square one. If the author really wants a certain style of jeans made to a specific fit, and he can't find them, then he either didn't look hard enough or has not exhausted his options - which include contacting the manufacturer, going to a local tailor (as classy folks used to regularly), or even learn to sew himself.

But please hear me out. There is a great story of one of the Desert Fathers, when asked why he was a hermit he said he read a book that said sell all he had and give it to the poor, so he sold the book and gave it to the poor. I was similarly moved after reading what this book was about, and as such chose not to clutter my life with it. I think it was a pretty good investment.

Anyone who's ever purchased a mobile phone plan knows large arrays of choices are aggravating and can create undue & unneccesary stress. It turns out that large arrays of examples supporting your thesis are also aggravating when they're nothing more than the exact same information wearing a different skin. Mr Schwartz had me from Chapter 1 in this (negative) respect.

I found Paradox of Choice to be eminently skimmable, and - on the bright side - leaves the reader with little or no guilt (therefore no stress) when setting the book down with no intentions of picking it back up again.

To be fair, Mr Schwartz' solutions to a less stressful life are straightforward enough. They basically amount to "moderation", which is something common sense tells us (whether we choose to listen is another matter), and does not require this book.

That's one less choice you have to make - you're welcome.

This book would have been better off being a pamphlet someone can pick up, flip through & then throw away (or recycle if you want to get as butt-hurt as Barry Schwartz).

His initial story of buying a pair of jeans should really serve as a warning for the rest of the book. If the gentleman writing the book has trouble grasping the fact that jeans are now made to fit more body-types comfortably, he must lack some common sense of how a competitive market works. (If you manage to see him speech on [...] you can notice that even for a filmed presentation he chooses to dress like a slob. Furthering the point that he seems like a grumpy old man attempting to keep up with change, all while fumbling.)

Most of the statistics presented in the book come across as "fluff" and would cut out at least 20 pages. I'm not the least bit interested in the 300-some cookies and crackers he counted at his supermarket.

It could be the way he presented his arguments, but a lot of it seemed like common sense. His interpretation of the average consumer is as frightening as it is concerning because it gives a bleak outlook of the future of humanity.

Although I make it seem like I would slap his head into a table if I had the chance, he did ignite a fire within me as far as disagreeing and disliking the book. With that, I award him with two-stars.

The very fact that Schwartz believes that it is worthwhile to write and publish this book -- in the midst of probably thousands of similar books -- proves that he does not believe his hypothesis when it comes to himself. He believes that his offering has something unique to add. But by the entire logic of this book, more is less. Therefore, by his own logic, he is hurting, not helping readers.

Yet he publishes anyway. Why? Probably self interest. To make a profit and spread his name to increase his brand value. But suppose he "believes" that he is doing good. How can that be? He probably believes that he has something "unique and valuable" to sell that his readers cannot get elsewhere.

But if he is willing to say that about his own work, by what logic can he deny the sellers and buyers of products like jam and shampoo the same right to offer and accept the "unique and valuable" benefits that they may find in those consumer products.

Logically, this is a cynical piece of self-defeating logic that insults its readers, even while the author happily takes their money.

Me like book. Book good. Choice bad. Fire. No fire. Only choice me need.
I loved this book. A great read. I couldn't put it down.
P.S. If you decide to read it, I hope that you will keep your expectations low. Expectations have a lot to do with our perceived enjoyment of things. I learned this in the book.

This book is a poor excuse for academic thought. Instead of serious research, all he is doing is justifying his political beliefs. He starts with these beliefs and then tries to justify them over and over. For example, he pines for the days when there was one phone company and one phone. Well, in those days, long-distance phone calls cost $1/minute (the equivalent of $5/minute now), and hence only the wealthy could afford them. We all get frustrated when we have to book a plane, but would it be better to go back to the 1960's when again, only the wealthy could fly. The "choices" have made access to these products available to many more in our society.

Another false tenet is that society should take away choice to "help" us. Who gets to decide this?? As if there is this intellectual body that "knows" what is better for you. Only a guilt-ridden person such as the author could actually think this way.

I bought this a gift for a socialist I know. I'm sure it will make him feel freer as he gives up his freedoms. Semantics is the playground of people unwilling to face reality or wanting to fool others and this book delivers. I will contue to bellive my lying eyes.

Finally someone has analyzed with insight and humor how negatively the endless choices in our society have become...and I was thinking of seeing a therapist. Thank you, Dr. Schwartz, for putting the abundance of choice in perspective and creating an awareness for the average consumer.

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. That most choices we are facing are not choices at all, but the same stuff in different packaging to create an illusion of choice. 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.

Choosing can be hard, psychological transaction costs if you will. But the book concludes that these costs, because they can be high, means that more is less. As is all too common in these big idea books, there are some interesting ideas but the book fails to move satisfyingly beyond the main idea (say, to the unintended consequences of limiting choice). Hopefully all the readers that like the book and take its ideas to heart will focus on improving their own lives and not mine.

I bought this a gift for a socialist I know. I'm sure it will make him feel freer as he gives up his freedoms. Semantics is the playground of people unwilling to face reality or wanting to fool others and this book delivers. I will contue to bellive my lying eyes.

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. That most choices we are facing are not choices at all, but the same stuff in different packaging to create an illusion of choice. 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.

Choosing can be hard, psychological transaction costs if you will. But the book concludes that these costs, because they can be high, means that more is less. As is all too common in these big idea books, there are some interesting ideas but the book fails to move satisfyingly beyond the main idea (say, to the unintended consequences of limiting choice). Hopefully all the readers that like the book and take its ideas to heart will focus on improving their own lives and not mine.

I admit, I only read the first hundred or so pages, then skimmed the rest. As Lincoln once observed, you don't have to eat the whole egg to know it's rotten.

It seems to me the first half of the book is filled with strawman arguments trying to illustrate how complicated the world has become, so that Mr. Schwartz can spend the rest of the book proposing solutions. But I doubt seriously that very many people lead quotidian lives anywhere near as complicated as the author makes out.

For example, one of the first examples the author gives is about how shopping has become complicated. He relates the story of looking for a pair of jeans to replace his well-worn current pair, and of becoming paralyzed when the sales clerk asks him which jean style (e.g., low-rise, boot-cut, flair, etc.) and color (stonewashed, distressed, etc.) he'd like.

At this point, the simplest thing to do would have been to say "I want the closest thing to what I'm wearing now. Can you help me find that?" His problem would have been solved in 30 seconds. He would, however, have one less thing to kvetch about in the introduction. (Buried deep in the book is the admission that the author didn't actually like the imperfect fit of the old jeans he was wearing, with little regard paid to the range of new style choices which provide him more opportunity to find something better-fitting.)

And that's the issue with the rest of the book. Whether it's complaining that his supermarket carries a hundred kinds of cookies, his cable TV provider has 225 stations, or that employers offer "too many" choices for employee health care plans, there's little convincing evidence that consumers are now stuck, deer-like, in store aisles trying to figure out which cookies to buy.

Finally, the author relies heavily on surveys which purport to show how consumers feel life has become overly complicated and stressful, and technology is running their lives. I'm sure that had you asked Americans the same set of questions at any point since the Industrial Revolution, you would have got the same answers. Our lives as Americans seem generally no more or less complicated than they've ever been - we're just better at complaining about them now.

In the late 1990s Professor Schwartz went to buy a pair of blue jeans and was traumatized by the array of choices that confronted him. Most guys who don't like shopping would have just ordered a pair of jeans from a mail order catalog. But Mr. Schwartz became obsessed with counting things like the number of varieties of crackers (85) at his local supermarket or computer printers (27) at an electronics store. That counting ritual led him to a "belief" that too much choice causes societal anxiety and unhappiness.

Mr. Schwartz further trivializes his topic by making no distinction between anxiety induced by having to make decisions about cancer treatments or spiritual and moral matters and the supposed (self-induced?) trauma of having to choose between blue jeans styles cracker brands. And he also confuses materialism and habitual recreational shopping with the supposed disadvantages of "choice". To understand this book it helps to know that Mr. Schwarz hates free market economies enough to co-author a book subtitled "How market freedom erodes the best things in life".

In an effort to pretend there might be some relevant objective evidence to back up the author's political views Schwartz cites some research about people called "maximizers" who are said to obsessed with seeking the "best" of everything instead of "satificers" (yes, this book actually uses these dumb academic words) who settle for "good enough". Then he tells us that people who are maximizers share some traits with people who are unhappy. Schwartz acknowledges (page 86) there is no evidence to support the notion that being a maximizer causes depression (i.e., unhappiness) but says "Nonetheless, I believe that being a maximizer does play a causal role in people's unhappiness and I believe that learning how to satisfice (sic) is an important step not only in coping with a world of choice but in simply enjoying life." There was a time when academics contributed to the public good by conducting actual research to provide evidence that supported their conclusions and opinions. But in response to specific questions about the so-called "maximizers" who Schwartz bases his entire book on - "What percentage of the population are maximizers?" and "What makes people maximizers?" - Schwarz responds, respectively, "I can't answer that" and "We don't know." This is research?

Schwartz spends the remainder of the book explaining how his "beliefs" prove that free market choices cause mental illness and then provides "strategies... for fighting back against the tyranny of overwhelming choices" (page 79). So what are some of the helpful strategies for dealing with the free market choice-induced unhappiness Schwartz "believes" is occurring? "Choose when to choose" (i.e., don't spend as much time sorting through boxes of crackers as you would in evaluating a new car); "Make your decisions nonreversible" (i.e., paint yourself into a corner and never undo a mistake...); "Control expectations" (i.e., don't hope for too much because you might be disappointed...); "Curtail social comparisons" (i.e., don't compare yourself to other people because it will just make you unhappy); "Learn to love constraints" (i.e., it's futile to struggle for a better life in a world stacked against you so don't try).

Buy this book if you don't already have enough "tyranny" in your life to worry about. Otherwise, ignore it and go about your daily activities blissfully ignorant of Barry Schwartz' "belief" in choice-induced anxiety.

Don't bother reading these praising reviewers; they're being paid by advertisers. This book is nonsense. I would recommend it to grade school pupils writing their first social studies paper. It consists of 90% common sense knowledge that every American consumer already knows, which he redundantly spews out with tedious examples chapter after chapter, and the rest is elementary social and economic vocabulary juxtaposed with a few statistics which are openly available to the public. Just another personal journal from a charlatan who landed a publishing deal. I can't believe this guy calls himself a professor.

If Mr. Schwartz really believed what he writes, he wouldn't write. There are, by his depiction of things, too many choices. For example, there are far too many books. By writing another book, he aggravates the problem while pretending to solve it. In reality, we filter out most choices and focus on just a few. There are 6+ billion people, so we could marry any one of say, 3 billion. We select from a far smaller number and are not distressed about the billions we never met.