Is there Wisdom in “The Paradox of Choice”?

The Paradox of Choice

Barry came up with the brilliant idea to create flavors that matched a lot of different people’s tastes. He created forty-five varieties of tomato sauce and visited several cities to test them out. Campbell Soup was astonished by the results – a third of Americans were craving a flavor that no one on the market was serving. To make people happy, you had to give them what they secretly craved – not as a collective group but as multiple groups of individuals. Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no universal principle for food or coffee – people are diverse and by embracing that, we can make them happy by offering them as many choices as possible.

Barry Schwartz disagrees with Gladwell and argues that more choice is not always a blessing. With all these choices – life isn’t better; it’s more confusing. Choices make our lives worse. The burden of responsibility has shifted from the doctor to the layperson – an expert is asking a layperson to make a big decision that they don’t have the knowledge to make. The more options we have, the easier it is to regret our decisions – economists call these alternative choices “opportunity costs”.

Employees are overwhelmed by fifty different options and instead of making a decision, they put it off indefinitely. Some people like variety – others are more disconcerted with a hundred new flavors of salad dressings. People are more disappointed with their experiences – even if they’re objectively doing fine. That might be a significant contributor to higher rates of clinical depression in affluent societies.

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Related posts:

1. The Politics of Social Media
2. The Procrastination Myth
3. Lesson 3: Don’t be Naive
4. The Denial of Death (Week 19 of Wisdom)