Barry Schwartz on Choice

Western Dogma is that maximized welfare of citizens is by maximized individual freedom. This is for two reasons: First, freedom is inherently good; second, individual freedom opens the individual to chase their own happiness. This freedom is accomplished by maximized choice. More choice = more freedom = more happiness.

There are no questions that there are some amazing and taken-for-granted benefits of living in a culture or community that follows that dogma. There are, however, some drawbacks. Schwarz lists two.

First, choice produces paralysis rather than liberation. Schwartz offers a study on employer-offered retirement plans. For every 10 stocks offered, employee participation went down 2%. More choice = more difficulty.

Second, satisfaction goes down as choice goes up. This is a very simple principle. As one has more options, one has greater opportunity to choose perfection. When there are more choices, one should be better than all the rest...and yet when we don't achieve perfection in our choice, then we made a less than perfect choice. We have lost the ability to be pleasantly surprised. When I go out to dinner, I receive, almost without fail, an excellent dinner, good service, and a nice time. But I leave feeling the same as I went in. I have come to expect excellence and when it's delivered, I'm just satisfied.

So, who's responsible? Ultimately...me. I could have chosen a better restaurant.

This is the problem of modern, affluent Western culture. We have too many choices. Some choice is necessary; some boundary is necessary.

(Anglican theologian, Oliver O'Donovan, has noted this idea, as well. O'Donovan argues that true freedom must be bounded. Therefore, O'Donovan argues, freedom is only possible by living within the moral order of the world.)