Quotes from book

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

“[W]e must decide which choices in our lives really matter and focus our time and energy there, letting many other opportunities pass us by.”

“[W]hat is most important to us, most of the time, is not the objective results of a decision, but the subjective results.”

“Having too many choices produces psychological distress, especially when combined with regret, concern about status, adaptation, social comparison, and perhaps most important, the desire to have the best of everything—to maximize.”

“[W]e now face a demand to make choices that is unparalleled in human history.”

“[C]hoice in many facets of our life has gone from implicit and often psychologically unreal to explicit and psychologically very real.”

“Identity is much less a thing people "inherit" than it used to be.”

“[C]osmetic surgery is slowly shifting from being a procedure that people gossip about to being a commonplace tool for self-improvement.”

“Ask yourself what is the point of advertising prescription drugs... Clearly they... expect we will... demand that our doctors write the prescriptions.”

“Filtering out extraneous information is one of the basic functions of our consciousness.”

“A large array of options may discourage customers because it forces an increase in the effort that goes into making the decision. ...[T]hinking about the attractions of some of the unchosen options detracts from the pleasure derived from the chosen one.”

“People are shopping more now but enjoying it less.”

“[I]ncreased choice among goods and services may contribute little or nothing to the kind of freedom that counts. ...[I]t may impair freedom by taking time and energy we'd be better off devoting to other matters.”

“[W]hen face with overwhelming choice, we... become "pickers,"... we must be willing to rely on habits, customs, norms, and rules to make some decisions automatic.”