The Paradox of Choice has been my favorite of the selected
readings. Schwartz’s study of how happiness is affected by success or failure
of goal achievement is very interesting. This idea applies to myself included,
for as long as I can remember I had to win. Now thinking about it this was
probably driven from my involvement in competitive sports.
The study
compares the choices of American consumers in daily life to something as
specified as a selection of courses at an Ivy League school. Voluntary simplicity
is brought up, but I had some difficulty understanding its fundamentals; upon
further investigation of this idea I come to believe it has to do with having
to many choices but that is just as much the problem as having to few choices.
Schwartz is convinces that these choices have materialized because society has
been far to focused on our personal wants.
Schwartz
presents six steps that illustrate the consumer strategy when evaluating
goods.
1. Figure
out your goal or goals:
this begins by asking yourself “what do I want?” The question is generally
answered by expected utility or in other words, by achieving that want how
would the individual than feel. After expected utility occurs the same choice
is based on remembered utility.
2. Evaluate the importance of each goal: Kahneman and
Tyersky investigated: how individuals make decisions. They found that there
were a few general rules that often would lead consumers to miswanting. There
are two primary forms of evidence that people rely on: anecdotal and expert
evidence. We assume with increased access into our memories information bank
that we must have encountered more of that information in the past this is
called availability heuristic.
3. Array the options: personal psychological accounts create
framing for the choices.
4. Evaluate how likely each of the options
is to meet your goals: Schwartz
thinks people can be “creative accountants” in their psychological balance
sheet.
5. Pick the winning option: options are
embedded in choices before they are chosen. Richard Thaler an economist gives
insight into the sunk cost theory.
6. Modify goals: Schwartz last step is based on
consequences of a choice affecting ones goal.
Schwartz also discusses “why we suffer”
he uses models of happiness and how it addresses choice. However, he does
caution that each of these strategies have their own difficulties.
- Choice and Happiness
- Freedom or Commitment
- Second-Order Decisions
- Missed Opportunities
