The Paradox of Choice

The Paradox of Choice

Barry Schwartz, the speaker for this video, explains how having a larger variety of choices has had an impact on our lives. While many would think that having more choices would be good, it is not as bright and wonderful in reality. With more choices brings more decisions someone has to make. People have to decide the pros and cons of each choice and decide if that is the best choice to get what they desire. The stress of making the choices gives the individuals paralysis in making these decisions. They cannot decide on what they want that they keep putting it off to make that decision day after day until finally they do decide on what to do. Many times people put it off for so long that they lose more than they gain from that decision. People also have to account for opportunity cost for the decisions that they make. Making a decision to do one activity, say watching a movie, you run the risk of losing the opportunity to do something else that you really want to do. You may begin to regret that decision to do what you did, making you feel worse about that decision than you would have should you of had access to only a single choice. In addition, you also have to face the facts that the choice you made was your responsibility. When everything was limited to just a few choices, one could blame someone else for that. There is also the increase of our expectations of what we should be getting for our choice. When there was only that singular choice of what you can get, you always know what to expect, nothing else is available making those occasions when things are better than expected, you are then pleasantly surprised. Now with a multitude of choices to make, people expect much more and when that decision does not yield what they desire, people become upset and it makes the decision feel as if it was not a good one.