The Paradox of Choice | Barry Schwartz

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti discusses the book The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. He explains that the book argues that while having more choices may seem like a good thing, it can actually be detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. The author contends that increased choice leads to increased paralysis and decreased satisfaction. Vigliotti also reflects on the idea that understanding humanity is best served through storytelling and artistic expression. He suggests that the rise of mental health issues may be linked to the overwhelming amount of choices in society, particularly as it relates to social media and increased exposure. Vigliotti concludes by recommending the book and encourages listeners to support the podcast by sharing it with a friend or family member.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So I thought today's book would be a good one to share coming off the heels of last month, because I featured a two-part discussion with Annie Duke and her book Thinking in Bets, and that is a book about decision making. And so one of my favorite books on decision making or on psychology or social psychology for that matter maybe you can even classify it as self-help, is the book that I'm going to be sharing with you today. It's actually probably one of the enduring social psychology books that is on my bookshelf. You know, for me, most of the social psychology books always seem to funnel into the same core ideas, or they are more promise than delivery a lot of the time. And that's not necessarily a slight on the genre, it's just that I have kind of come to the feeling or the idea or the thought that humanity is probably best described through fiction as opposed to trying to describe it through the sciences.

(01:25)

I kind of like to think the sciences are better at describing the hard sciences, right? So something that is a little bit more predictable and a little bit more mathematical. Because one of the things that I love the most about humans is that they're both predictable and unpredictable. With that being said, I think that there is a lot of great work that gets done in the field like Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, and Dan Ariely, he's another one. All books and work that I continue to have on my shelf and alongside those books, of course, is the book that I'm sharing with you today, The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. And Barry Schwartz is a PhD. He's a professor of Social Theory and Action at Swarthmore College. I really love this book for a lot of reasons, many of which you'll get to hear momentarily.

(02:20)

You know, one more thing that I wanted to mention, just in regards to science and the social sciences, I realize that all sciences are an ongoing discussion, and that is the beauty is that you do a lot of research and it builds off of the science that comes before it, and then that parlays into the science that will come next. And it's just this ongoing discussion about whatever the subject matter is at hand. And the reason why I said before that I feel like humanity is best described through fiction is because there are so many unpredictable qualities about the individual human that for me, storytelling and widespread storytelling and being able to hear from a wide variety of voices in any medium, whether it's the written word or on film or in music or the visual arts, this quality of diversity of opinion and diversity of thought and artistic expression is the essential ingredient in understanding and expanding our comprehension on humanity and culture.

(03:31)

And when you suppress those forms of artistic expression and opinions and diversity of opinion, you only hinder humanity as a whole. And I think that we learn a lot more through those artistic endeavors than anything. I mean, even someone who I had mentioned earlier, Daniel Kahneman, who is revered in the space for his work on cognitive biases and just how we think and act as humans are irrationality as humans. And you know, someone like himself who knows a tremendous amount in this field, and he even says, and this is now quote on quote, I heard him answer this in an interview, “If you want to move people, you have to tell stories, not numbers. If you want to convince people that this needs to be done, you need to convince them by telling them stories about individuals, because numbers just don't capture the imagination of people.”

(04:27)

So you could take that however you want it. For me, it sort of grounds my opinion that understanding humanity is probably best served through storytelling, which is something we've been doing since the dawn of time. Anyway, I should probably get back to the book at hand because it is a great book, and it is one that has endured for me and probably will always endure for me, mostly because I think that it presents a problem in our lives that we all face, and it just feels true to me. So what is this book about, The Paradox of Choice? It makes the contention that more choice, which is the hallmark of individual freedom. The thing that we hold so dear to us means better options and greater satisfaction. But what he argues in the book is that excess choice is actually detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being.

(05:22)

And he says that because of two primary things, increased paralysis. So instead of acting, we actually stagnate. So rather than liberation, rather than more freedom, we actually stay still and we don't choose at all, right? So in the face of all these choices, we don't choose at all, and he will contend that more choices, even if you're able to choose will result in decreased satisfaction. So why does it result in decreased satisfaction? Well, it results in decreased satisfaction because there are so many imagined possibilities that we increase our expectations and we start evaluating all the opportunity costs with these other possibilities along with the escalation of expectation. You can never meet it, essentially. And so then we get into this cycle of self-blame, and it happens mostly on a subconscious level, and we become chronically dissatisfied with a lot of our choices. And this has to do with choice architecture, I guess something that Richard Thaler actually talks a lot about in his book Nudge.

(06:30)

But the real problem is that we face this every single day, right? Is we are living now in a society where we have so much choice and at face value, it appears like it's a good thing, but in reality, it may actually be a bad thing for us overall, not just as individuals, but as a society. You know, one of the things he pointed out in this book, now, the book came out almost 20 years ago at this point. I mean, he's done some revised additions since then. But one of the things that he pointed out at the time was he felt like this paradox of choice is a big reason to blame for the steep rise in a lot of the mental health issues that we see. And I can't help but think that since that time, this has only been fortified. And there's a lot of research that has been done since to show the continued rise of a lot of these mental health issues, and mostly in accordance with things like social media, which relies heavily on choice and increased expectations and imagined possibilities and self-blame and decreasing satisfaction.

(07:39)

Look, I don't want to be doom and gloom or somebody who is advocating for less personal freedoms because I believe wholeheartedly in freedom being a core tenant to living a quality life. But what I do want to point out and what this book points out is that the fact that some choice is good doesn't necessarily mean that more choice is better. You know, one of the things that I'm pretty much always constantly thinking about is this idea of more, it's an idea that has been sold to us since we were very young, and it's an idea that I'm not so sold on as I've gotten older. Less is more is kind of a core tenet of how I live my life. I've talked about it, I believe on this podcast before, but I don't want that to be misconstrued with me not supporting capitalism or personal freedoms.

(08:38)

And all of that couldn't be farther from the truth because I think that they're totally different. I think less is more, which parlays into this idea of the paradox of choice is an aesthetical preference. It's a life preference that I think yields the best quality of life. And again, for a lot of the reasons on a social level or a life level that are pointed out in say, a book like The Paradox of Choice now on an aesthetical level with art or you know, whatnot, when we're talking about minimalism or less being more or cutting the fat out of something and making it very streamlined, it's a little bit of a different thing. But if you think about it in similar terms, you could see where it is definitely congruent. The core tenant, which is if you have less of something, it puts more of a focus on it, which in a theoretical sense, makes it more, makes it bigger, makes it greater, makes it more important, has more meaning, and more purpose.

(09:42)

And so that is why I sort of believe that. But anyway, I think I've shared enough. I will just tie it up by saying, I definitely think you should read this book. It probably makes the case that everybody needs a fishbowl in life. Maybe if you are short on time, there's an excellent Ted Talk that this author Barry Schwartz actually gives on the subject matter as well. Or if do is type in The Paradox of Choice, I'm sure it'll pop up on Google or YouTube, wherever you search for it. With that being said, thank you for tuning in. I always appreciate your listenership. If you enjoyed the episode, then please remember to share it with friends, family members, and other people who you think might enjoy it, because word of mouth is everything when you're trying to spread awareness. And with this podcast specifically, it's to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do.

(10:33)

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