Why choice is bad

by Maarten Swemmer Leave a reply »

One of the great regular TEDTalks contributors, Barry Schwartz, held a lecture about why the amount of choice we have in our lives is a bad thing. I just found the lecture on Youtube and while the TEDTalk was already held in July 2005, I think it’s still valuable.

Why choice makes  people miserable:

  1. Regret and anticipated regret
  2. Opportunity costs
  3. Escalation of expectations
  4. Self-blame

The best quote: “The secret to happiness is … low expectations.” (Barry Schwartz, 2005)

Watching this video should be life-changing for marketeers and will change the way they approach portfolio management and the choice (=responsibility) they give consumers:


By the way, I wrote a similar story about choice being a detractor some time ago and there is another speech from Barry Schwartz I found intriguing.