Half Changed World

Today’s book is The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz.  As my loyal readers may remember, this book was the source for the Post article that I discussed last month in How to Be Happy.  The article intrigued me enough that I requested the book from the library, and I’m very glad I did.  It provides a theoretical framework for all sorts of common experiences; as I read it, I kept on saying to myself "oh, of course!  That makes sense!"

Schwartz’ basic question is, at a time when we have more choices than ever before in areas from the trivial (what cut of jeans to wear) to the profound (whether to have children, what sort of careers to pursue), why aren’t people happier?  At its heart, the book is a psychologist’s response to the economists’ claim that more choices are always better than fewer.

An economist will say that if you have options A and B, and you prefer A, adding option C might make you happier — if you prefer it to A — and can’t make you worse off.  And the same applies for options D, E, F and so on.  Schwartz argues that more choices can make people unhappier for several reasons:

• Figuring out all the choices takes time and effort.  This time and energy may be more valuable to the consumer than the improvement offered by an additional choice.  Schwartz argues that in a situation where one is faced by a large number of similar choices (e.g. the cookie aisle in your typical American grocery store), happiness is best achieved by accepting the first option that meets your minimum standards, rather than doing an exhaustive search to determine the absolute best possible choice.  Some economic models recognize this issue; Schwartz notes that an economist, Herbert Simon, coined the word "satisficing" to describe this phenomenon.
• When you compare a bunch of options, it is likely that each will have some strengths and some weaknesses.  Schwartz argues that extensive comparisons make you more aware of the ways in which your choice falls short of an imagined ideal, combining the best features of all of the options, and thus reduces the pleasure that you take in it.  This is especially true when you continue to examine the alternatives after you have made your decision.
• When faced with too many options, even if many of them are desirable, some people are unwilling to commit to any (and give up on the other possibilities).  Schwartz describes a study suggesting that the more options a company offers for investing in its 401(k), the fewer people will sign up at all, because they get paralyzed by the prospect of choosing.
• Even choices that are real improvements only make people happier for a short period of time, because expectations catch up to reality so fast.  Thinking that a new and improved detergent, television, or even relationship will fundamentally change your life is almost always a mistake. 
• Schwartz argues that people are more upset by negative consequences of choices they have made than by equally negative events that seem to come out of the blue and couldn’t have been avoided.  More opportunities to choose lead to more chances for regret.

I found this book deeply liberating in some ways, because I’ve often felt guilty that I don’t spend more time researching the options before I make choices.  (See my entry on picking a health care plan, for example.)  I’ve felt like I was being lazy, letting "good enough" distract me from a search for the best.  Schwartz passionately argues in favor of "good enough" as a way to escape the madness of endless comparison shopping. At a deeper level, Schwartz argues that always being on the lookout for a better option in the big parts of our lives — relationships, career choices — is a prescription for unhappiness.

I’m not sure what my reaction to this book would have been if my natural inclination was more to "maximize" — to seek out the best possible choice — rather than to "satisfice."  I’m not sure how much this is within one’s voluntary control.  I was reminded of Jennifer Boylan and her description of her inability to accept her "second best life" as a man, no matter how hard she tried. 

Schwartz recommends the practice of keeping a gratitude list, so you don’t take the good things in your life for granted.  What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving week?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.