The Paradox of Choice

[lisa needs braces]

http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005688

I read this book about five years ago. I think it's basic argument, which is that we are faced with far too many choices in our everyday lives, is true. Of course, an economically minded person would say that so much choice is good as it indicates abundance and material well being. However, does greater choice lead to greater satisfaction?

The author in the book mentioned the example of going shopping for a pair of pants and simply being overwhelmed at all the choices for brands, styles and specifications. I hate shopping for clothes because of experiences like this. But I guess it wouldn't matter if the only issue was that a great deal of choice means you only have a hard time choosing. Rather, by the mere fact of having so much to choose from one is more likely to end up being less satisfied with whatever one chooses. After all, you're aware of everything else you could have purchased. More choice = more awareness of opportunity cost.

Here's an example from my everyday life. I subscribe to netflix, and can access the "instant view" films through my playstation 3 on my television. I have about a hundred films I've always wanted to see instantly available to me, most of them classics, except that I don't really want to watch them anymore, because I know as soon as I start one I'll start fidgeting and wonder "hmm, what else could I have selected"? And as digital distribution of entertainment becomes more streamlined and prevalent this can only get worse. Okay, so maybe I'm inordinately indecisive, but does anyone else find the idea of Shwartz' book compelling?

[Scarpia]

http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005688

I read this book about five years ago. I think it's basic argument, which is that we are faced with far too many choices in our everyday lives, is true. Of course, an economically minded person would say that so much choice is good as it indicates abundance and material well being. However, does greater choice lead to greater satisfaction?

The author in the book mentioned the example of going shopping for a pair of pants and simply being overwhelmed at all the choices for brands, styles and specifications. I hate shopping for clothes because of experiences like this. But I guess it wouldn't matter if the only issue was that a great deal of choice means you only have a hard time choosing. Rather, by the mere fact of having so much to choose from one is more likely to end up being less satisfied with whatever one chooses. After all, you're aware of everything else you could have purchased. More choice = more awareness of opportunity cost.

Here's an example from my everyday life. I subscribe to netflix, and can access the "instant view" films through my playstation 3 on my television. I have about a hundred films I've always wanted to see instantly available to me, most of them classics, except that I don't really want to watch them anymore, because I know as soon as I start one I'll start fidgeting and wonder "hmm, what else could I have selected"? And as digital distribution of entertainment more streamlined and common this can only get worse. Okay, so maybe I'm inordinately indecisive, but does anyone else find the idea of Shwartz' book compelling?

Not particularly.  I stumbled on this article in the Arts and Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) recently.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/5339

It attributes the rapid increase in psychological pain in the 20th century to sociological changes, in which Americans now typically live with less close contact with family and friends.  This has led to greater feelings of loneliness and isolation, with therapists replacing friends and family members as life councilors.


P.S., Arts and Letters Daily is a wonderful resource.

[lisa needs braces]

P.S., Arts and Letters Daily is a wonderful resource.

Agreed.

[lisa needs braces]

Not particularly.  I stumbled on this article in the Arts and Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) recently.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/5339

It attributes the rapid increase in psychological pain in the 20th century to sociological changes, in which Americans now typically live with less close contact with family and friends.  This has led to greater feelings of loneliness and isolation, with therapists replacing friends and family members as life councilors.

Also, I think this is another issue all together.

[DavidRoss]

I remember Marcuse addressing the notion that we're somehow "free" because we have a hundred models of washing machine to chose among as bunk.  Having been brainwashed into consumerism, a perverse quasi-religious ideology reinforced by pop culture in which the answer to every problem is to acquire more or bigger or better or more exclusive things, we are of course perpetually dissatisfied as a natural consequence of confusing means for ends.  How ironically insidious that the very value structure that breeds our discontent reinforces itself by promising that the antidote is to pursue even more of what desolates our spirits in the first place!

[Scarpia]

I remember Marcuse addressing the notion that we're somehow "free" because we have a hundred models of washing machine to chose among as bunk.  Having been brainwashed into consumerism, a perverse quasi-religious ideology reinforced by pop culture in which the answer to every problem is to acquire more or bigger or better or more exclusive things, we are of course perpetually dissatisfied as a natural consequence of confusing means for ends.  How ironically insidious that the very value structure that breeds our discontent reinforces itself by promising that the antidote is to pursue even more of what desolates our spirits in the first place!

This little gem of a book (part of a series of travel books) makes the point that in American for any item you want to buy there are many choices, but the choices are all the same. 

My biggest gripe with American consumerism is that as soon as you identify a product you like, they "improve" it.  My parents bought a Hoover vacuum cleaner, and 10-15 years later when they renovated the top floor of the house they decided to get another one to use upstairs.  It was identical.  Now if you buy a vacuum cleaner, by the time you make it back to Target to replace the drive belt you will find that your model has been discontinued and replaced by an "New and Improved" model, whose only significant differences is that it uses a different size drive belt. 

I'm not sure this is really the source of our existential angst.

[karlhenning]

Gripe without e is a grip : )

[MN Dave]

"Freedom of choice is what you got. Freedom from choice is what you want." -- DEVO

[karlhenning]

What does the starling know of choice?

[Franco]

"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black" - Henry Ford

[MN Dave]

P.S., Arts and Letters Daily is a wonderful resource.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Elgarian]

What does the starling know of choice?

What does the starling choose to know?

[drogulus]

     I'd rather be confronted with choices than not have them. So long as there is one good choice among them it doesn't bother me if there are other good ones, or other bad ones for that matter. The critics of consumerism seem to regard it as a kind of crisis that people of low education might be made happy by having their limited goals met. Happiness must be earned, and is most deserved by people who know and understand the true meaning of life better than the common folk do. It seems unfair that those with the deepest insights should suffer from them while the "masses" go shopping.

     
     

     In other news:

      Spiritual Crisis closes Microcenter chain

      Many items were said to be "metaphysically unjustified"

[DavidRoss]

What does the starling know of choice?

Love it!

In other news:

      Spiritual Crisis closes Microcenter chain

      Many items were said to be "metaphysically unjustified"

When I was an undergrad other students, usually majoring in engineering or human biology (pre-med), often asked what I planned to "do" with a degree in Philosophy.  I told them I planned to open a chain of small philosophy shops in malls across America where people could go for help with their existential angst.  A surprising number thought I was serious.

[Daverz]

Yes, we have more choices, but the choices are among all the same crap.