The Paradox of Choice (2004) is a psychology book on decision-making. It investigates the counterintuitive effect of having too many choices: it’s not true that choices necessarily free us, but they can also paralyze us and make us unhappier.
Schwartz, the author, gives practical advice on how to become happier, more fulfilled, and even more effective decision-makers.
Contents
Bullet Summary
- Too many choices can make us unhappy, indecisive, and regretful (“what if…”)
- Maximizers, people obsessed with making the best decisions, are the worst hit
- Fear of regret leads you to sub-par decisions (and self-sabotage)
- You can learn to stress less and be happier
Full Summary
About The Author: Barry Schwarz is an American psychologist and university professor at Swarthmore College.
Introduction
The usual thinking goes that the more choices people have, the freer and happier they are.
The author says that’s true up to a certain point.
When there are too many choices, the negatives start overtaking the positives. Above a certain threshold, choices no longer liberate us but debilitate us.
Part I: When We Choose
Picture this study:
People could choose between 6 varieties of jam or 24 varieties. The people exposed to the tray with 6 options bought jam 30% of the time.
People exposed to 24 options only bought them 3% of the time.
Studies also show that people with fewer choices are not only more likely to buy but are also more satisfied with what they get.
Part II: How We Choose
Barry Schwartz says that we don’t really shop for value.
We shop for expected value.
Then, once we tried something, we built a “remembered utility” and chose based on that.
Ideally expected, experienced, and remembered utility matches
But most of the time, they don’t.
Indeed, we don’t really remember our experiences all that well.
Memory Bias: We Remember Peaks
We remember the peak and the end of an experience.
The duration, for example, matters little.
So ironically, you could have a longer bad experience that ends not so bad, and you would prefer it to a much shorter bad experience that doesn’t taper off at the end.
Memory bias invalidates the concept that we are rational decision-makers when we are presented with many choices.
We Don’t Know What We Will Want
Even when choosing what we would like to consume in the future, we make mistakes.
This study showed that students thought they wanted to have more diversity in the future, but they didn’t.
They thought they wanted variety, but instead simply stuck to what they liked most (Diversification Bias).
We Think There Is More If It’s Available
Availability also makes us feel there are more options available than might be the case.
We think, for example, that there are more words in English starting with “T” than having “T” as the third letter.
But that’s only because we can think of more words beginning with “T”.
We Can Only Decide Comparing Things: Anchoring Bias
We have difficulties considering things in isolation.
Instead, we often make decisions based on other available options.
In a rack full of 900 Eur suits, a suit at 600 feels like a bargain. The context is indeed what makes a good pick.
This is the anchoring bias (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).
We Value What’s Already Ours More: Endowment Effect
When we acquire something, it feels like its value is higher than the cash we just exchanged it for.
Since we fear loss more than gain, giving up something that’s already ours feels disproportionately unacceptable to us.
That’s why, the author says, some companies can safely offer guarantees: people are not willing to give up their items after they become “theirs”.
Similarly, when you propose a car with full options and ask people to winnow out what they don’t want, they’ll end up with more stuff than if they were asked to add options to a car with zero options.
Maximisers VS Satisficers
Finally, we get to the real genius part.
Barry Schwartz introduces here the two different ways people relate to options.
The two types of people are: satisficers and maximisers .
- Satisficers: pick the first good option
Satisficers pick the first option.
They don’t spend too much time pondering the different available choices. They are decisive: they take what they like first.
To sell to satisfied customers, marketers need to make their products as available and visible as possible.
Satisficers are more likely to be happy with their choices.
- Maximizers: search for the best option
Maximizers (want to) pick the best option.
Every choice is a mini-project. They conduct exhaustive and time-consuming searches, trying to come up with the final winner.
To succeed with maximisers marketers need to offer the best possible value.
Maximisers often end up less satisfied (read below why).
Maximizers By Choice
Schwartz says we’re not maximizers or satisficers in every single realm of life.
Which is good news, as he implies, as it means we can choose.
Maximizers VS Perfectionists
Schwartz says that perfectionists have very high standards they don’t expect to meet.
But maximizers believe they can reach their lofty goals.
That’s why perfectionists are not depressed or regretful. Perfectionists are happier with the results of their actions than maximizers are.
Take the quiz here to see if you’re a satisficers or maximizer.
Maximizers Suffer of Regret
Almost everyone who scores high on the maximizer scale scores high on the regret scale.
In the presence of many options, Maximizers end up unsatisfied as soon as they find it there are new or better options.
And one of the reasons why maximizers take so long to decide is also because they want to avoid future regret.
Maximizers, indeed, can sometimes even experience anticipated regret.
It’s the imagination of how bad you’ll feel if you realize you didn’t make the best choice.
The overload of choice is indeed a burden to maximizers, not to satisficers, as they feel the need to research to avoid making the wrong choice.
Near Misses Are So Painful for Maximizers
Near Misses are particularly painful for maximizers as near misses, sorry for the pun, maximize regret.
You were so close, yet not cigar.
That’s one of the reasons why bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists.
Regret Leads Us to Poor Decision-Making
It was eye-opening for me when Barry laid out clearly that often we make choices based on future regret.
Imagine that you can choose between a great possible win and a good certain win.
You will choose differently depending on whether you will be available to know what would have happened if you had taken the risky bet.
People indeed show greater willingness to take risks when they can find out the “what if option”.
It’s because they will not have to deal with the “what if” scenario.
Regret Factors
Barry says the major determinants of regret are:
- Personal responsibility for the result
- How easily you can imagine better alternatives
The more options there are, the more those two factors are magnified.
Part III: Why We Suffer
Barry Schwartz talks a bit about happiness in relation to wealth and options.
He says that above a certain threshold, there’s no strong correlation between wealth and happiness.
Similar to the conclusion Brene Brown reaches, he says that the biggest determinant of happiness are close social relationships.
Albeit, Barry adds, we don’t know the causality here.
But likely it goes both ways: happy people make more social connections, which in turn makes them even happier.
Decisions With Trade-Offs Make Us Unhappy
Barry Schwartz says that studies show how decisions with trade-offs tend to make people unhappy.
The problem, he adds, is that most decisions present trade-offs.
A common response people adopt is to postpone the decision, he says.
Other Options Make Us Unhappy: Opportunity Costs
A study by the University of Florida shows that people value a magazine if they don’t see any other magazines in it.
The simple idea that they could miss out on other options makes people feel that their choice is less valuable.
Schwartz describes an example from his own life.
He was walking along a street full of nice restaurants. He was looking forward to dining in one, but as he kept walking, he couldn’t find the best option available, and he started losing both appetite and mood.
Looking at one attractive alternative after another reduces the pleasure of the next one.
Relationships and Job Hopping
Barry Schwartz implies that the feeling of having many romantic options leads people to choice paralysis, also in dating.
He says that’s why people marry much later nowadays and hop from job to job.
They are never sure that what they picked is the right one. And the grass often seems greener on the other side.
This is something I mention in Mistakes Women Do In Early Dating.
We Adapt… And We Can’t Predict Our Future Mood
After a few months of winning the lottery, people revert to their level of happiness before winning the lottery.
And people suffering a paralyzing accident also go from depressed to normal.
Schwartz explains what are the external causes and doesn’t want to imply the two events are comparable in people’s level of happiness.
However, it does tell us that people overestimate the impact of most events on their future emotional well-being.
Maximizers will likely be most disappointed by adaptation.
Because they spend so much time choosing what they believe will be a big game-changer. Only to find out it didn’t really change their life all that much.
Adaptation is also at the heart of the hedonic treadmill.
And learning about adaptation can help us sweat less on decisions because, a year from now, it won’t really matter that much to us.
Grateful People Are Healthier
The author says grateful people are healthier, happier, and even more likely to achieve their goals.
And contrary to adaptation, we can directly control our gratitude.
Comparisons Make Us Unhappier
Schwartz says we don’t judge where we stand and the results of our choice in a vacuum, but always based on the environment and on the people around us.
Here’s how we evaluate our experiences:
- People around us (because we care about status)
- Expectations
- Previous experiences
- Previous best experience
Maximizers are the ones who really care about social comparisons.
Ownership Culture = Blame & Regret
The American culture stresses the power of the individual and of the individual’s choices (Extreme Ownership mentality).
Such a culture, however also puts more pressure on the individual and on the choices he makes.
Barry says that personal responsibility culture coupled with cultural ideals such as thin bodies causes depression, illnesses such as bulimia, and also an increased suicide rate.
Maximizers are most likely to feel this kind of pressure.
Part IV: What We Can Do
Barry Schwartz says that some people can lead a better life if they can learn to be less of a maximizer.
But the world is not helping you today.
There are far too many choices. Between 1975 and 2008 the average number of products in supermarkets skyrocketed from 9.000 to over 47.000.
So you must do it by yourself.
He proposes a few steps to minimize the choice paradox. This is my take on his suggestions:
- Choose when to choose
Determine what really matters in your life.
Think of how you could spend that time on something else more important. Think of how your final choice will benefit from research, if at all.
If it does, then decide how much time you spend on research.
- Become more of a satisfier
Think of the times you behaved like a satisfier and you happily settled for good enough. Then apply the same logic and methods more often
- Stick to your usual
Unless you’re very unhappy, stick to what you always buy.
My Note:
This is a great suggestion. Steve Jobs, for example, used to wear the same clothes not to waste time.
- Set rules
The more rules you have, the fewer decisions you gotta make.
- Stick to oldies but goldies
Ray Dalio says great is better than new.
Similarly, Barry suggests not to be tempted by new and improved.
Don’t worry about what you’re missing in the world: likely you’re not missing anything.
- Make your choices final
The author says that the ability to change our minds often leads to stirring disturbance and unhappiness.
A great fix is to make more of our choices final.
Also useful is to make your relationships last: you picked your partner, stick with it.
- Anticipate adaptation
Whatever you’re choosing, it won’t make much of a difference to you a few weeks down the road.
Think about it and pick something.
- Allow serendipity
If you allow the world to surprise, you’ll be surprised -and happier-
- Practice gratitude
Stop comparing and, also recommended by Tony Robbins, gratitude is a magical thing to make your life happier.
Barry Schwartz TED Talk
Real-Life Applications
There is really a lot to learn here and much you can use to improve your life.
Especially if you are a maximizer.
- Stick to Your Choices
Many options make us feel bad about picking something or staying with something.
That’s why we job-hop and find it hard to commit to a partner.
Make your choice final instead, as Angela Duckworth explains, passion grows when you stick to things.
- Stop Wasting Time on BS Decisions
I’m sure we’ll be guilty of this. As MJ DeMarco explains, time is the most precious resource we have.
Let’s stop spending time on small decisions and use that time for what really matters.
- Don’t Allow Regret to Stop You Doing The Right Thing
I realized I have too often allowed regret to stand in the way of making the best decisions.
Out of fear of regretting something later on, I don’t do anything -or self-sabotaged myself-.
When you do the same, you never give yourself a chance.
This is also similar to the concept of Resistance in Linchpin by Seth Godin.
- Be Aware of Memory Bias
In how a woman should turn down a man for sex I explain how memory bias can doom our relationships early on.
When something bad happens to us, we will blow it out of proportion and forget all the good things.
Watch out when that happens so that you don’t throw away the baby with the bath water.
- Embrace Serendipity
Torturing on “what ifs” not only leads you nowhere but your what ifs are most likely wrong.
Maybe if you had gone to college, you would have hated it. Or a truck would have hit you on your first day there.
You don’t know the what-ifs scenario. Embrace a bit more serendipity in your life.
- Let Go of Regret
There’s only something to gain when you can let go of bad decisions from the past.
And you can only gain when you can make decisions without fear of tomorrow’s regret.
CONS
Published Early, It’s Not As Simple
The book jumped the gun on early research, so it’s not a complete overview of the impact of choices.
Bit Disorganized
The paradox of choice extends much beyond choices.
Possibly the title should have reflected that.
More importantly, I haven’t always found the chapters to well reflect the content.
Review
I loved “The Paradox of Choice“.
I remember years ago going through an introvert checklist and realizing for the first time in my life “fu*k, I’m an introvert!”.
The Paradox of Choice was equally eye-opening for me when I realized I’m a maximizer.
Personally, this book also happens at a great moment in my life. I was just realizing I was allowing fear of regret and future pain to self-sabotage myself.
I believe this book will help me overcome that. And it can hopefully do the same for you if you’re a fellow maximizer.
