I’ve finished reading Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice.” In the book, Schwartz describes how, by offering more choices and automation in our lives, this “culture of abundance” makes people less satisfied and less happy. I strongly recommend the TED talk that Schwartz gave on the book. The book goes into further study and evidence for why more choice leads to less happiness.
“Because there is so much personal choice today, the expectation for the results of our choices has skyrocketed.”
Basically, it comes down to this: because there is so much personal choice today, the expectation for the results of our choices has skyrocketed. The idea that the perfect choice is available for every decision becomes much more real. Because we believe this perfect option is available, even though it may not actually exist, it is easier to feel regret when even small things go wrong with the decisions we make. Because humans are loss-averse, we spend more time looking at alternatives to avoid the possible regret caused by not getting the ‘perfect’ choice. The more time we spend looking at alternatives, the higher our expectations for the outcome. The higher the expectation, the greater the possible regret. The more regret we worry about, the more time goes into the decision making. This can happen to the point of paralysis, where no decision is made. A recipe for disappointment and unhappiness.
Is there hope? The last chapter in the book offers a few ideas to battle against all the choice in a culture of abundance.
Limit the time spent making decisions to only choices that are truly important to you, and be aware that the time you spend comparing different options can detract satisfaction. The book suggests learning to love constraints. By embracing limits and building rules and habits, you can reduce the number of small choices you need to make. This way you don’t need to deliberate on the same small decisions time and time again, such as what deodorant to buy.
When you do decide to make a choice on something, have a pre-determined standard for the option you want. If you find an option that meets those standards, choose it. Do not spend time looking for the perfect option. People who adopt an ‘only the best’ mentality are called Maximizers. They are found to make more decisions, take longer make the decisions they do make, and be less happy after a choice is made. People who have a ‘good enough’ mentality are called Satisficers. Satisficers make less decisions, look at less alternatives when making decisions, and are more happy after making decisions.
Make your decisions non-reversible. This surprised me before reading the book, because I would have thought that the ability to keep a decision open to change would make someone more at ease with it. Not so; the ability to change a decision after the fact means that comparing the chosen option to alternatives never stops. This can detract heavily from the happiness you get from the original decision.
Understand that whatever you choose, the experience you have will fade due to adaption. This is a really great mechanism when life is bad, because it won’t keep seeming bad, even if things stay exactly the same objectively. But when life is good, adaption can rob you of any pleasure by constantly reminding you that your new toy just doesn’t feel the same as two months ago when you first got it. Keeping this in mind, combined with an “Attitude of Gratitude,” being thankful for what you do have, can help you better reflect on how good things are, rather than how good they could be. This should also help curtail social comparison, which wreaks havoc on happiness by showing options that may not exist or even be possible for you.
I have been keeping these thoughts in mind as I craft habits for the small choices in my own life, adopting “good enough” standards to use when I do make choices, and most important of all, keeping a thankful attitude about what is going well with the choices I have made.