The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz pdf

ABOUT SIX YEARS AGO, I WENT TO THE GAP TO BUY A PAIR OF JEANS. I tend to wear my Jeans until they’re falling apart, so It had been quite a while since my last purchase.A nice young salesperson walked up to me and asked If she could help.

“I want a pair of Jeans—32-28,” I said.
“Do you want them slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy, or extra baggy?” she replied. “Do you want them stonewashed, acid-washed, or distressed? Do you want them button-fly or zipper-fly? Do you want them faded or regular?”

I was stunned. A moment or two later I sputtered out something like, “I Just want regular Jeans. You know, the kind that used to be the only kind.” It turned out she didn’t know, but alter consulting one of her older colleagues, she was able to figure out what “regular” Jeans used to be. and she pointed me In the right direction.

The trouble was that with all these options available to me now, I was no longer sure that “regular” Jeans were wrhat I wanted. Perhaps the easy fit or the relaxed fit would be more comfortable. Having already demonstrated how out of touch I wras with modern fashion, I persisted. I went back to her and asked wrhat difference there was between regular Jeans, relaxed fit. and easy fit. She referred me to a diagram that showed how^ the different cuts varied.

It didn’t help narrow the choice, so I decided to try them all. With a pair of Jeans of each type under my arm, I entered the dressing room. I tried on all the pants and scrutinized myself In a mirror. I asked once again for further clarification. Whereas very little was riding on my decision, I was now convinced that one of these options had to be right for me, and I was determined to figure it out. But I couldn’t. Finally, I chose the easy fit, because “relaxed fit” Implied that I was getting soft in the middle and needed to cover It up.

The Jeans I chose turned out Just fine, but It occurred to me that day that buying a pair of pants should not be a daylong project. By creating all these options, the store undoubtedly had done a favor for customers with varied tastes and body types. However, by vastly expanding the range of choices, they had also created a new problem that needed to be solved. Before these options were available, a buyer like myself had to settle for an Imperfect fit, but at least purchasing Jeans was a five-minute affair. Now it was a complex decision In which I was forced to Invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt , anxiety, and dread.

Buying Jeans Is a trivial matter, but it suggests a much larger theme we will pursue throughout this book, which Is this: 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 begin 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. It might even be said to tyrannize.

This book Is about the choices Americans face In almost all areas of life: education, career, friendship, sex, romance, parenting, religious observance. There Is no denying that choice Improves the quality of our lives. It enables us to control our destinies and to come close to getting exactly what we want out of any situation. Choice Is essential to autonomy, which Is absolutely fundamental to well-being. Healthy people want and need to direct their own lives.

Language: English
Format: PDF
Pages: 282
Download The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz pdf