The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Essay Preview: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Report this essay
Most of us like the freedom of choice. We believe more and more choices can bring us happiness. But the fact is, the more choices that we have in lives, they will bring more satisfied and unhappiness to us. Sometime, too many choices will make us more confused and we have to waste lots of time to pursue something that is unnecessary. We dont have enough time to do other things. We should ask ourselves, ” Are we really need this kind choices?” In the book ” The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less” by the social psychologist Barry Schwartz, he argues that happiness does not depend on the number of choices. He uses his example of one day when he went to shop a pair of jeans. He asked for a pair of jeans with the size 32-28 but the salesperson replied, “Do you want them stonewashed, acid-washed, or distressed? Do you want them button-fly or zipper-fly? Do you want them faded or regular?” (Schwartz 1). He was stunned at the time and he felt he just wants a regular jean. He didnt know it was difficult to find a regular jean for him. Since there were so many styles to choose, he began to think which style was the most comfortable. Therefore, he asked to try several different styles of jeans, he also asked the salesperson for the advice and finally he bought a good pair of jeans. But for just a pair of jeans, he spent lots of time in the store. I dont think he is happiness. There are many similar cases in our lives. For example, choosing mobile payments programs are also very distressed because when you make a research for a long time but you still feel this is not perfect. This is one of the emotional consequences of having a problem in overload of choice that Schwartz points out in his book. He also gives many suggestions and solutions to teach us how to face the paradox of choice.
We have to face too many choices in the modern society. We are always have to study very hard to compare various options. This may cost lots of time, spirit. Unfortunately, we never know we are choosing the right choices or not. Even we decide carefully in the decision, we still think the results will be better if we choose the other one. Thats why I always hear people say their regret words, “I should choose this instead of that? If I had to choose this, it should be better.” I believe regret is the most harmful effect happen by chooses to the wrong choices. Schwartz says that we have two types of regret. They are anticipated and postdecision. He analyzes that, “Anticipated regret will make decisions harder to make, and postdecision regret will make them harder to enjoy”(148). I think myself as the postdecision person for the most of time in life. If I make a big mistake in career, I will have a high regret for a long period until I forget. In other word, if you are stubborn and not flexible to every choice in live, than the opportunity to choose will make a bunch of bad decisions, which led to make yourself regret.
According to this book, we better to find our personalities because they affect our mind to make decisions. Schwartz divides the people into two different personalities. They are called maximizier and Satisficer. He gives two definitions on both that, “If