Analyzing Barry Schwartz's Article 'Tyranny Of Choice'

Jarvin Alcantara
Professor Boyoko
English 101
March 21, 2017
The Problem With Too Many Choices In the world today, there are so many choices readily available. It would make sense that many would see that abundant choice is a good thing for people since it offers more freedom. Choice is better than none but too much choice can make people unhappy. The more options there are to choose from the chances of the consumer actually picking one decrease. Also increased expectation for the particular chosen option is increased, making it easier for the consumer to feel dissatisfied due to the option lacking in any way. Once everything is decided, the consumer can feel further discontent is when they think about the other possibilities if they had chosen
a different thing. In his article, “The Tyranny of Choice”, Barry Schwartz argues that some choice is becoming too much choice and is making life difficult for people rather than making it easier.
He separates people into maximizers and satisficers. Maximizers are the people who try to pick the best possible choice they can, while satisficers are the ones who pick the choice that is “good enough”. Barry mentions that the more choices are offered means that people are less inclined to choose. Schwartz provides an example of this particular phenomenon as a shopping scenario where the consumer doesn’t buy any gourmet chocolate simply because there was too many choose from. Once the person actually makes a decision they will think about what they have done. Another example used was college students and this time regarding their reflections over the decisions they have made. Students have to pick their classes very carefully and often are stressed out because they do not want to pick the wrong classes/majors because those choices will directly influence their future opportunities. Schwartz says this is one reason why there is an increase of depression in college students. Lastly the overwhelming decisions that have to be made takes away from the well-being of humans because making the right choice takes up a lot of time that people could use to socialize and make themselves
happier. When going through an electronics store to buy a computer, the consumer can easily be overwhelmed.
This would be strenuous to the maximizer type person because they would have to gather much information about every possible choice. Regarding purchasing a computer they would have to decide on whether to get a desktop or laptop, which processor to have, how much RAM, hard drive space, etc. There are so many things to consider making it stressful and tiring for the consumer to settle on a decision. Most people would just go back home and put away buying a computer until the “next time” that they will keep putting off. This scenario can be difficult but, can be considered arbitrary compared to the decisions college students have to consider because their choices will determine what kind of degrees, and therefore, the jobs they will have in the future. In the article Schwartz mentions that, “students are eager to have double and triple majors, partly, I know, to pad their resumes, but also because they can’t figure out which discipline they really want to commit to” (804). If the number of choices are somewhat reduced to a manageable number, the amount of time/effort into making a “wise” decision will be more
manageable. With so many choices a person’s expectations of their specific choice is increased to the point where it can not possibly be fulfilled. This is because since there are so many choices, there is no reason for the product to not be “perfect” for himself or herself. Going back to the purchasing a computer example. In the end the consumer should see that they have the computer that has all features they want, can run the programs they need, reasonably priced, etc. This is not the case for long, when the consumer reflects back on their purchase they will think about all the possibilities if they had chosen a different one. For example, there is another device that had more features that would’ve been handy, or there was a cheaper computer that was “good enough” and the money that could’ve been saved been used for something else. People feel regret because they feel like they are losing out on an opportunity that may or may not be better. Even when the “right” device was chosen people are not better off because they do not feel satisfied with their decision. While choice is definitely not a bad thing, too much can make people end up feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. Too much choice will require people to invest more time and effort into making a choice which can be stressful and exhausting. When a choice is finally chosen, regret is eminent since people compare what they have with what they could’ve had making them feel like they chose the wrong thing or feel like they are missing out on better opportunities. The amount of choices should be simplified to make it easier for people to go on with their lives instead of being paralyzed with deciding on how they should live.

Work Cited
Schwartz, Barry. “The Tyranny of Choice.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 50, no. 20, 2004, pp. B.6–B8.