Product Description

In the spirit of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.

Whether we’re buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions--both big and small--have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice--the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish--becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice--from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs--has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.

By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4928 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-01
• Released on: 2005-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Like Thoreau and the band Devo, psychology professor Schwartz provides ample evidence that we are faced with far too many choices on a daily basis, providing an illusion of a multitude of options when few honestly different ones actually exist. The conclusions Schwartz draws will be familiar to anyone who has flipped through 900 eerily similar channels of cable television only to find that nothing good is on. Whether choosing a health-care plan, choosing a college class or even buying a pair of jeans, Schwartz, drawing extensively on his own work in the social sciences, shows that a bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us. We normally assume in America that more options ("easy fit" or "relaxed fit"?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being. Part research summary, part introductory social sciences tutorial, part self-help guide, this book offers concrete steps on how to reduce stress in decision making. Some will find Schwartz's conclusions too obvious, and others may disagree with his points or find them too repetitive, but to the average lay reader, Schwartz's accessible style and helpful tone is likely to aid the quietly desperate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Who woulda thunk it? Here we are, in the early years of the twenty-first century, being driven bonkers by the staggering array of consumer goods from which we must choose. Choosing something as (seemingly) simple as shampoo can force us to wade through dozens, even hundreds, of brands. We are, the author suggests, overwhelmed by choice, and that's not such a good thing. Schwartz tells us that constantly being asked to make choices, even about the simplest things, forces us to "invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Did I make the right choice? Can I ever make the right choice? It would be easy to write off this book as merely an extended riff on that well-worn phrase "too much of a good thing," but that would be a mistake. Despite a tendency toward highfalutin language ("the counterfactuals we construct can be tilted upward"), Schwartz has plenty of insightful things to say here about the perils of everyday life. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Washington Post
"Wonderfully readable."

Customer Reviews

A Must-Read Manual for Those Suffering from Mall Malaise
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.

Insightful, Never Boring
In this book, Schwartz explores why people make strange decisions, why we can often make decisions that are totally irrational and why the plethora of today's choices make it hard for decisions makers to be content with the decisions they've made after they've made them. Schwartz presents the latest research on why some people seem so happy with a decision they've made when presented with few alternatives and why some people fret over decisions where no avenue has been left unexplored. Nothing too deep here but I found the book very engaging. This would be a great book for someone to read over a weekend.

Repetitive and pedantic
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.