Book
Schwartz B. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. New York: Ecco; 2004. 304 p.
Why we cite it
Schwartz’s case that more options need not mean better outcomes — that past a threshold they bring difficulty choosing, regret, and lower satisfaction — and his maximiser/satisficer distinction, which contrasts people who seek the best option with people who seek one that is good enough.
The choice-overload effect itself is contested. A 2010 meta-analysis of 50 experiments (Scheibehenne, Greifeneder & Todd) found a mean effect of virtually zero, with more spread between studies than chance would give. The jam study that popularised the effect is Iyengar and Lepper’s, not Schwartz’s.
The book is about choice, not eating. Applying its framework to food is an argument, not a finding about dieters, and the maximiser/satisficer split is a framework, not a measured taxonomy.
About the author
Barry Schwartz, PhD, is the Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor Emeritus of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College and Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (1971). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, and a Phi Beta Kappa Distinguished Visiting Scholar (2006-07).
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