BARRY SCHWARTZ TED 2009 FREE

Not only does this make the experience feel more draining but it also makes us more likely to choose nothing-to put off making a decision entirely, because we feel so overwhelmed. The effects of this bias go beyond complicating our decision-making process: it also has a big impact on our affective (emotional) experience, decreasing our satisfaction with the choices we make and increasing the likelihood that we will regret those choices.Ĭhoice overload gets its name from the paralyzing effect it has on our decision-making processes: the more variety there is, the harder it becomes for us to choose. As psychologist Barry Schwartz has argued, our approach to life is so rooted in this individualist ethos that we struggle to see how choice overload is harming us. But the empirical evidence on choice overload contradicts this idea: in many cases (though not universally), more variety makes our lives harder and less pleasant. There is a widespread assumption that more choice equals more freedom, and more freedom is always, unambiguously, a good thing.

BARRY SCHWARTZ TED 2009 FREE

A lot has changed: industrial and technological advancements have made it possible to manufacture more and more products, and to import others to regions they never would have reached before we have shifted to a free market economic system, where alternatives proliferate and compete with one another and, at least in the Western world, we have evolved culturally to prize individual freedom and autonomy over nearly everything else. Life in the modern world couldn’t be more different. In a harsh and unforgiving environment, being choosy about what kind of foods you would eat, or how you dressed, could result in you winding up dead. Up until very recently in human history, most people’s paths in life were more or less predetermined: few individuals had much say in what job they would have as an adult, or whether or not they would get married, or whether or not they would have children. Having lots of choices is one of the biggest things that separates our modern existence from the lives of our ancestors.

Barry schwartz ted 2009