Key Points

• Giving people too many choices tends to lessen their satisfaction.

• “Maximizers” are people who, given a choice, will exhaustively search all the options, seeking all possible information, in order to make the best possible choice. This behavior generally consumes a lot of time, and often leads to nagging doubts, perhaps where no one clear winner emerged.

• “Satisficers” are those who settle for a choice that is “good enough” for them These people are generally happier with their choice, and spend less time choosing, leaving them free to enjoy other things.

Summary

Barry Schwartz aptly demonstrates that having too many things to choose from often leads to the consumer feeling bewildered when facing the choice, and less satisfied even after taking a decision. He cites psychological studies that indicate people are less likely to buy a product when faced with too many choices.

His conclusions are that people should aim to be satisficers, rather than maximizers, and that by having standards to live by, rather, than, say, rigidly enforced rules from some higher authority, we can eliminate some choice in our lives that isn’t really needed.

Links

Barry Schwartz

Video with Barry Schwartz giving a talk at Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200