The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

In The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz argues that decision-making is an inherently stressful process which is often riddled with irrational thinking. By explaining the biases and other behavioral phenomena that complicate our choices, Schwartz explores the complexities involved in human behavior and decision-making.

Schwartz relies on scientific studies to demonstrate a significant array of biases that inform people’s choices. From the availability heuristic to inaction inertia, Schwartz shows that people’s decisions are often based on emotions or incomplete information. The author connects this flawed foundation with choice overload, arguing that an increase in choices only worsens people’s already difficult experience of decision-making by increasing trade-offs. He explains, “The emotional cost of potential trade-offs does more than just diminish our satisfaction with a decision. It also interferes with the quality of decisions themselves” (131).

Worse still, the author shows that irrationality does not end with people’s decisions, but can fester for long afterwards in the form of counterfactual thinking. These imagined hypotheticals are usually an idealized version of what someone believes an alternative choice would have given them, prompting feelings of regret or dissatisfaction with their real-life choice.