Psychologist Schwartz Says Unlimited
Choice Can Produce Genuine Suffering

by Alisa Giardinelli
05/21/2008

Recently in South Africa's Business Day, Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action Barry Schwartz discussed ways to mitigate the possible negative effects of having too much choice. "I think everyone chooses 'good enough' some of the time," says Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. "The people who are tortured by choice are the ones who feel they have to make the best decision more often," he said. "Nobody feels they have to do it all the time, and nobody feels they never have to do it. Since we know how to settle for good enough, it's a case of settling for good enough where you used to insist on the best. It takes less time, there's less looking over your shoulder, worrying that you might have made a mistake, and so on." more