The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

“As a culture, we are enamored of freedom, self-determination, and variety, and we are reluctant to give up any of our options. But clinging tenaciously to all the choices available to us contributes to bad decisions, to anxiety, stress, and satisfaction—even to clinical depression.”

Schwartz argues that an abundance of options could actually have adverse effects on people’s mental health. By discussing American culture’s interest in freedom and how it relates to decision-making, Schwartz introduces his theme on The Relationship Between Choice, Freedom, and Happiness.

“If we’re rational, they tell us, added options can only make us better off as a society. Those of us who care will benefit, and those of us who don’t care can always ignore the added options. This view seems logically compelling; but empirically, it isn’t true.”

Schwartz asserts that what seems like a positive thing—an increase in choice— could actually put a strain on people's decision-making process and satisfaction with their choices. This quote helps to frame his statistical evidence on how a plethora of options decreases firm decisions and increases dissatisfaction. By discussing these consumer behavior phenomena, the author establishes his theme on Human Behavior and Decision-Making.

“The burden of having every activity be a matter of deliberate and conscious choice would be too much for any of us to bear. The transformation of choice in modern life is that choice in many facets of life has gone from implicit and often psychologically unreal to explicit and psychologically very real. So we now face a demand to make choices that is unparalleled in human history.”

In this passage Schwartz depicts decision-making as a psychologically laborious task. By highlighting how much choice has increased throughout history, the author paints choice overload as an unnatural and undesirable consequence of modernity. This passage develops his theme on The Relationship Between Choice, Freedom, and Happiness, as he shows how political freedom and increase in choice have gone hand-in-hand, but have not always resulted in more happiness.