This week's edition of Parade Magazine has an article by Barry Schwartz, author of the book "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less." He is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore.
He says that as the number of choices we have grows (for products) we become less happy, that it is too hard to know which toothpaste, for example, to buy. All of this affluence and choices has made us less happy. This comes from a survey. The number of people describing themselves as very happy has declined 5% in the last 30 years. We are also more depressed than we used to be. Although no one factor explains this, he writes "It seems that as we become freer to pursue and do whatever we want, we get less and less happy."
What do list members think of this?
It seems that stores that limited the number of kinds of toothpaste they sell might make higher profits. Are stores aware of this problem and does it affect what they do? Do they hire psychologists to help them sort this kind of thing out? Do people like Schwartz recommend government regulations limiting how many different brands a store can offer? Do economists put much stock in opinion polls? If people keep going to stores that offer them so many choices, that could be revealed preference, so they must think they are happier going to those stores? Do economists have some other explanations for why people are not as happy as they used to be? If people are too affluent, could they give some of their money away and become happier?
Cyril Morong
|
- Re: Too many choices CyrilMorong
- Re: Too many choices Fred Foldvary
- Re: Too many choices Sampo Syreeni
- Re: [armchair] Re: Too many choices Ron Baty
- Re: Too many choices AdmrlLocke