Last Thursday, Dr. Barry Schwartz, a professor of social theory and social action at Swarthmore College, spoke at the annual G. Stanley Hall lecture. He discussed the fatality of having to deal with too many choices.
The G. Stanley Hall lecture is an annual event organized by of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. “We’ve planned this since the summer because it’s a big event,” senior Connie Tan said. “We bring in a speaker just once a year in the spring.”
Schwartz began with an anecdote about his local grocery store, which contains 285 varieties of cookies, 75 iced teas, 230 soups, 175 salad dressings and 40 toothpastes. He reassured the audience that it was not a supermarket, but rather, a small local grocery store.
“This variety of choice is a near quantitative change from our grandparents’ generation and our parents’ generation,” Schwartz said. “But is this good news or bad news?”
Freshman Margaret Keener felt her interest piqued when Schwartz described confronting an overwhelming selection of choices at the grocery store. “I always have this problem,” Keener said.
“I could spend 20 minutes trying to pick a flavor of ice cream or decide what to do with my day. I was interested in hearing what [Schwartz] had to say about decision making.”
“Choice is good,” Schwartz emphasized. He went on to say that there are massive psychological benefits from having options, and that people are unable to live without them. “However, the idea that if some of something is good, more of it is better, is inherently false.”
To prove his theory, Schwartz cited numerous psychological experiments done by Sheena Iyenger, a professor of social psychology at Columbia University. In one study, a display table was set up with 30 different expensive jams in a market.
People could sample as many as they liked, and then they received a coupon for jam. On day two, only six jams were put on display but anyone who tried them was still given a coupon.
The result was that more people came to the table with thirty jams, but only 10 percent bought jams because people didn’t know which one to buy.
Schwartz calls this inability to make decisions in the face of too many options “paralysis,” which occurs in any situation where a person is given too many choices, such as in speed dating, 401K investing, phone service and gear, healthcare, retirement plans and college majors and courses. In these situations Schwartz says that people will pick based on what is easiest to evaluate rather than what is important to evaluate.
While the findings of the study may have been enlightening to some, others were not surprised by the results. “It’s not that surprising,” freshman and neuroscience major Alisha Jamil said.
“How is anyone supposed to pick between thirty different jam flavors?” Jamil stated.
Schwartz explained another example demonstrating people’s tendency to make choices based on what is easiest to evaluate with relationships: in a study, Iyengar asked people what characteristics they were looking for in a partner.
Most people said that they wanted to find someone who was funny, kind, empathetic and attractive.
However, when people are placed in a speed dating situation where they meet a lot of other people, they become confused by all the options and choose someone based on what is easy to evaluate; mostly looks.
The next day, they regret their decision because they realize that they didn’t make the right choice.
“Complete freedom is only beneficial to our well-being through some constraints — the question is what constraints?” Schwartz said.
According to Schwartz, the single biggest determinant to being happy in life (and with your choices) is having close relations with other people.
And why is this? Schwartz explained that close relations to other people limit your choice set. For example, you can’t just take a job anywhere because you have an obligation to other people.
Freshman and biology major Dan Hawn found this part of the presentation surprising. “It’s hard to imagine any constraint being ‘good’,” he said. “It was really interesting to hear that.”
Overall, students who attended the event found that Schwartz’s speech resonated with them and that they could relate to the issues he discussed. Freshman Becky Sturner, a psychology major, found the information about relations particularly interesting. “That was my favorite part of the lecture,” Sturner said. “It really shows how important your relations with other people are in life.”
Freshman Nathan Bradley also found the presentation’s information about relationships interesting.
“I definitely think people can be too analytical about certain things, like picking a ‘partner,’” Bradley said. “Some things don’t need to be analyzed but are more of a gut feeling about what seems right.”
