The Paradox of Choice
One of the books on my coffee table at the moment is “The Paradox of Choice� by sociologist Barry Schwartz. Schwartz (Professor of Social Theory at Swarthmore College) here examines the social phenomenon of choice: How we are having to alter our modes of choosing and decision-making to incorporate the incredible range of choices, detail and information available to us.
Advances in technology have created a landscape wherein it is now possible to spend an entire 24-hour day purchasing a pair of jeans online, and still be unsure we have made the “best� choice. Whilst this may seem bizarre and unlikely to most, Schwartz argues that our learned leaning toward “maximizing every opportunity� has created a nation which includes large numbers of “maximizers� who want to make sure they make the “best� decisions, and thereby end up in an abyss of choices they cannot escape from. New behavior, Schwartz argues, is needed.
“By vastly expanding the range of choices they had also created a new problem that needed to be solved. When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begins to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates.�
Referencing political philosopher Berlin’s concepts of “Positive liberty� (freedom to . . .) vs “Negative liberty� (freedom from . ..) he argues that our human quest for freedom now necessitates a change in behavior for many. The paradox of our times is that we want control over the details of our lives, but also want to simplify our lives. Our brains – used to filtering out extraneous information – are having to do this on a massive scale, and the situation continues to increase in speed and mass. With abundant quality and quantity of information, decision making has just become . . . harder.
I’m continuing to read with interest . . . Schwartz is arguing (as per his subtitle) that “the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction� . . . I would venture to suggest (at this point in the text) that the abundance of choice still offers incredible freedom, but that we are having to come up with new ways to manage this freedom. To me the exciting possibilities lie not in learning how to “correctly� manage the choices of buying a pair of jeans or cookies, but rather in where we choose to exercise our freedom. We live in an age where we can be an awakened humanity, fighting together epic battles against Global Poverty, AIDS and other injustices. Perhaps our abundance of information and choice offers us the opportunity to choose and make a difference in these global arenas rather than worrying about jeans, cookies and breakfast cereals.
(Part 2 of Musing to follow – Paralysis of Analysis: Are “Maximized Leaders� Paralyzed By 21st Century Abundance?)
January 29th, 2007 at 11:01 am
sounds like a cool book. i read “A Whole New Mind” by Dan Pink last year - he writes about the same idea - in an age of abundance, we have to have new minds that think more about story, emotion, symphony.
would be interesting to try and map the balance of not enough choice and too much choice about cookies and jeans.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
I actually read this post a few days before we met for the first time.
In light of our conversations, I think sometimes we really only have one choice, we just falsely believe we have others and allow ourselves to be distracted.
Also… I think this idea is the reason my physical desk and my computer desktop are cluttered with crap. In an effort to not miss anything, I keep everything available to me and in turn miss everything.