Re: Too many choices

[Fred Foldvary]

--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 He says that as the number of choices we have grows (for products) we
 become less happy,

Is he just guessing, or is there evidence for this?

 that it is too hard to know which toothpaste, for example, to buy.

That seems ridiculous.  People tend to settle on one brand and stick to it.

 All of this affluence and choices has made us less happy.

Another conclusion from thin air?
Could it not be something like less satisfactory relationships, or worry
about war, or more stress?

 It seems that as we become freer to
 pursue and do whatever we want, we get less and less happy.

What data makes it seem so?

 What do list members think of this?

Where's the evidence?

  If people are too affluent, could they give some
 of their money away and become happier?

This is in fact what many of them do.

Fred Foldvary

=
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Too many choices

[Sampo Syreeni]

On 2004-01-06, Fred Foldvary uttered:

 He says that as the number of choices we have grows (for products) we
 become less happy,

Is he just guessing, or is there evidence for this?

I seem to have heard of some controlled experiments to this effect, in the
psychological literature, so I think there might be a small grain of truth
to the claim. (As usual, no cite. Take the grain of truth with a grain of
salt.) But I also think the problem is elsewhere.

Basically, lots of choices are only a problem when you habitually look
back, mull over the opportunity cost, and start to hesitate with choice
because costs are involved. That's a sure sign of a mindset where people
refuse to understand that choices are by definition about not having it
both ways. Some of the problem also comes from not acknowledging that sunk
costs are indeed sunk, and that that's just fine.

From this perspective the idea that lots of choices are bad is simply a
symptom of people's unwillingness to conceive of choice the way orthodox
economics does. But what really makes me wonder is why these ideas are
becoming so commonplace right now. Have people in fact been more
economically savvy in the past, or what? And if they have, why the change?

(It shouldn't come as a surprise that, as a libertarian, I'm prone to
blaming creeping socialism for these sorts of things. ;)
--
Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], tel:+358-50-5756111
student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front
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