No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Paradox of Choice
Abstract
Choice is what enables each person to pursue precisely those objects and activities that best satisfy his or her own preferences within the limits of his or her resources. This chapter argues that choice, and with it freedom, autonomy, and self-determination, can become excessive, and that when that happens, freedom can be experienced as a kind of misery-inducing tyranny. Though one cannot be free without choice, it is arguable that choice-induced paralysis is a sign of diminished rather than enhanced freedom. Though policy initiatives can operate to minimize the negative effects of choice overload, they contain the danger that they will simultaneously undermine the positive effects of freedom of choice. The reason people can say anything and be understood is that they cannot say anything in any way they want. It is linguistic constraint, in the form of these rules, that makes linguistic freedom possible.
... Generally, the main gap addressed by our proposed methodology is its design for situations where there are numerous issues (options) to be analyzed and resolved among the DMs. In such cases, the cognitive effort required to reach a resolution by considering all options simultaneously is either unfeasible or highly prone to assessment errors due to the Paradox of Choice [15]. The primary benefit of our proposal is that DMs can identify which options should be prioritized for negotiation during a pre-negotiation phase. ...
... The new methodological proposal seeks to address the Paradox of Choice [15], which suggests that having too many options can hinder decision-making due to cognitive overload. In conflicts involving numerous options, providing an ordered list of preference statements requires many decisions, potentially reducing the quality of the responses. ...
Information about decision-makers’ preferences is essential for the efficient modeling of a conflict. However, obtaining this information becomes more challenging as the size of the conflict increases. To address this issue, this study proposes a new approach to the option prioritizing method within the graph model for conflict resolution. The approach aims to gather preferences from decision-makers in a more consistent and practical manner. The proposed method involves partitioning the set of conflict options based on their importance, then applying the option prioritizing method and conflict stability analysis to subconflicts, where only the options in each partition set are considered. Additionally, only states that are equilibria in a given step are deemed feasible in subsequent steps. The main findings highlight a reduction in the cognitive effort required from decision-makers and the generation of more effective and consistent solutions that address the core needs of the conflict. By working with subsets of options incrementally, the method offers a more simplified and robust understanding of the problem. To demonstrate the proposed method, a real hydrological conflict was used as a case study.
... 16,17 The psychology of decision making has posited that feeling overwhelmed with the number of options and the choice process can lead to making no comparisons at all. 18,19 Additionally, complex administrative burdens-also referred to as "frictions" or "sludge"-may undermine people's motivation to compare, or their motivation to switch if they do compare. 19,20 Here, we conducted surveys after the 2024 open-enrollment period in which we directly asked Medicare Part beneficiaries with stand-alone prescription drug plans whether or not they compared prescription drug plans. ...
... First, beneficiaries who did not compare or switch plans were more likely than switchers to report not even knowing how to go about making a switch. These findings align with the psychology of decision making, which has posited that choice avoidance, or not engaging with the choice at all, is a common response to feeling overwhelmed with the choice, 18 and with administrative burdens also referred to as "frictions" or "sludge." 19,20 Second, beneficiaries who did not compare or switch were less likely than switchers to report plan issues such as discontinuations, changes, and dissatisfaction. ...
In the United States, individuals with disabilities and those aged ≥65 can supplement their Medicare with so-called stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Beneficiaries can switch their stand-alone prescription drug plans annually, but most do not. Indirect evidence has raised concerns that non-switchers do not even make plan comparisons (labeled “inattention”), but direct evidence is scarce. Therefore, we surveyed 439 beneficiaries of Medicare Part D plans from a nationally representative adult sample after the 2024 open-enrollment period. Overall, 53% self-reported making no comparisons. Of those who did not compare, 98% did not switch (vs. 67% of those who did compare). Multinomial regressions revealed that beneficiaries who neither compared nor switched were more likely than switchers to report difficulties with comparing and switching, experiencing no plan-related discontinuation, changes, or dissatisfaction, not using advisors or the plan-finder website, and receiving potentially confusing mailings. Non-switchers who did compare were similar to switchers in reporting few difficulties and relying on advisors and the plan-finder website, but they were less likely than switchers to report plan-related changes, discontinuation, or dissatisfaction, while being more likely to report receiving mailings and having no college degree. We discuss insights for policy-making.
... Other psychological and behavioral factors ubiquitous in the consumer choice field also play an important role. For instance, the concept of choice overload, as explored by Schwartz (Schwartz, 2014), suggests that when individuals face multiple options, they might fall prey to decision paralysis, hindering decision making and making suboptimal choices. Other barriers to optimal decision-making include cognitive limitations such as limited attention and bounded rationality (Gabaix et al., 2006;Kahneman, 1973;Kaufmann et al., 2018). ...
... Results suggest that participants with lower scores for HIL, lower accumulated balance, and those experiencing health events with moderate financial consequences were less likely to access personalized information when provided with two optional types of such information. Such findings might be indicative of choice overload, referring to how an excess of options can lead to decision paralysis (Adriatico et al., 2022;Chernev et al., 2015;Schwartz, 2014). ...
... Encontrámo-nos ainda no domínio das respostas provisórias que assumem, que fique claro, uma interpretação algo especulativa. Schwartz (2004) ...
... A investigação na área da psicologia identificou diferenças individuais que desempenham um papel relevante neste contexto. NormanSchwartz (2004) caracterizou dois grupos distintos de indivíduos que se diferenciam quando se confrontam com a necessidade de efetuarem escolhas e de lidarem com as alternativas disponíveis. Um grupo de sujeitos, designados de satisficers, analisa as opções que tem pela frente, escolhe uma delas a partir de um conjunto de critérios que definiu previamente e finaliza dessa forma o processo. ...
Contemporary societies force individuals to make a growing number of choices in multiple areas of their existence, particularly in terms of consumption patterns or lifestyles. Decisions that in the past were strongly conditioned by external authorities, such as the State, the church, or the family, have now shifted to the individual sphere. This change in liquid societies, to use Zygmunt Bauman’s well-known expression, can be interpreted as an expansion of the sphere of human self-determination and freedom. However, as we will argue, based on studies in the field of psychology, the multiplication of choices and their concomitant decisions have led, in many circumstances, to anxiety and paralysis in the decision-making process, dissatisfaction with the options chosen, and even affect the individuals’ sense of ontological security. However, the way this negative impact is felt depends, at least in part, on aspects related to the psychological development of individuals, namely the experiences with parental figures at an early age. Furthermore, these experiences do not occur in a social vacuum. The specific contexts in which the most marginalized populations live are marked by higher levels of uncertainty, particularly in terms of employment and income. They play a relevant role in the increased difficulty in building psychological structures that help individuals deal successfully with the challenging tasks of contemporary social life, and especially with the choices they have to face.
... According to a theory on self-regulation, the act of making choices and exercising self-control is an effortful process drawing on a limited resource (Baumeister et al., 2018). Relatedly, larger assortments often demand greater time and effort from individuals, potentially triggering concerns about their ability to make optimal choices, resulting in regret (Iyengar et al., 2006;Schwartz, 2015). For example, in one study, although participants were initially more attracted to an extensive selection of jams, they were more likely to purchase a . ...
... There is an intriguing area of research exploring our tendency to gravitate toward opportunities for choice. However, an overabundance of options may lead to choice overload, referring to the difficulty with decision-making when presented with many options (Schwartz, 2015). Although prior research with children has suggested they are sensitive to choice, there were no systematic studies of choice preference or overload in children. ...
Psychological theory and research demonstrate the positive effects of personal choice on human motivation. However, there is evidence in adults that an overabundance of options can lead to choice overload, when choices become demotivating. Little is known about the early development of behaviors involving choice. Across two studies, we investigated whether toddlers ( M age = 2.5 years) preferred choice over non-choice and tested for the presence of choice overload using a novel sticker-book task. Moreover, we explored associations between children's executive function (EF) skills and choice preference behavior. In Study 1 ( N = 106), children preferred choice on 70% of trials, and this preference increased as a function of the number of options from 2-26. There was no evidence of choice overload. Study 2 ( N = 52) replicated findings from Study 1 with up to 53 options, but there was no linear effect. Age (inversely) and sex (female) predicted choice preference in Study 2. Some aspects of parent-reported EF were inversely related to children's preference for choice, whereas a direct assessment of EF was positively correlated, independent of age. Future research should test for choice overload using alternative measures with a wider age range and clarify associations between EF and choice preference.
... However, studies suggest that an abundance of choice may paradoxically reduce satisfaction. For instance, offering more options can lead to decision difficulty and decreased satisfaction, a phenomenon termed the "choice overload effect" (Fasolo, McClelland, and Todd 2007;Gourville & Soman 2005;Iyengar and Lepper 2000;Schwartz 2004). While this effect has been debated, recent research focuses on understanding its moderators rather than its overall impact. ...
In the past few decades, there have been concerns of a possible “choice overload effect” in that the provision of more (vs. less) choice might decrease choice satisfaction as it increases the difficulty of selecting an option among many. However, beyond choice satisfaction, there are other outcomes of offering more choices worth investigating. We examine another potential outcome of offering more choices. The results from four experiments suggest that offering more choice increases the chooser's valuation of the chosen option, relative to offering less choice. This is because offering choice increases the chooser's psychological ownership of the chosen option, a premise derived from prior conceptualizations of choice as fostering control. Thus, we extend theoretical understanding of the consequences of offering choice beyond satisfaction, while at the same time offer implications for marketers interested in understanding the benefits—in addition to the potential harms—of offering choice for consumers.
... Drawing inspiration from the experiments conducted by Schwartz (2004) in various decisionmaking areas, including pension investments, it is noted that the presence of a wide range of similar investment alternatives can represent a factor that inhibits the ability to choose rather than facilitate it. The Italian market of open pension funds, despite having undergone considerable simplification in the period under analysis, still offers a very wide range of similar products, amounting to 42 funds and 193 investment lines. ...
This paper investigates the relationship between growth and quality of pension funds. It measures growth in terms of changes in the number of participants and cash flow transfers and appreciates the quality of the funds through the set of information on past results and costs published in the official prospectuses. The results show that growth rewards the best performing funds in the long term, while annual performance and costs have no relevance. Nevertheless, other factors, such as market power and commercial pressure, appear to be more powerful. The existence of conditions of market power capable of attracting investors beyond the actual quality of pension products is undesirable as it harms future pensioners. These results have implications for the Authority, as mandatory information should be suitable to induce investors to identify the best products and direct individual choices toward the public objective of a more efficient market.
... which points to the fact that an increasing number of options leads to a growing amount of time and effort to make a decision [36]. In line with Schwartz's [37] famous paradox of choice, those situations illustrate how an overload of choices negatively affects consumer decision-making and how "too many choices lead to paralysis" [37 p. 134]. We draw from this analogy because we find, both in the scientific discourse and in our own experience, a set of barriers to effectively selecting kernel theories. ...
Theory is a pivotal component in Information Systems (IS) research and no less so in Design Science Research (DSR) projects, which are typically expected to select and use kernel theories to develop theoretical contributions. However, the actual application and utilization of kernel theories remain challenging and heterogeneous – from producing theoretical outcomes in each project to using theory for the justification of design activities. This is problematic since academic journals have high expectations for selecting, using, and contributing
to (kernel) theory. As a consequence, DSR researchers, especially novice ones, face challenges in navigating the high expectations of journals with a blurry research component. In this paper, we explore a set of tensions prevalent in the selection, use, and development of kernel theory to then elaborate on possible pathways to respond to them.
... This approach is far from the ideal principles for indicator selection from more established fields 26 . Given this context, users are presented with both a dearth of quality frameworks and a "paradox of choice" that hinders decision-making 27 . Despite efforts to monitor and assess urban biodiversity, such as the Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity (SICB), tools often focus on local impacts and require customization for diverse local contexts 28 . ...
We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by selecting among indicator topics within each theme. This adaptability and holistic approach position the UNI as an essential instrument for nature-positive transformations. With the institutional support of IUCN, the UNI offers an opportunity for cities to assess and enhance their contributions towards a more sustainable and biodiverse future.
... They always seek perfection. Such freedom also undermines the notion of commitment and social belonging, which are vital to our mental health (Schwartz, 2009). Freedom constrained by ideals and boundaries may in fact be easier to bear and less dangerous than unconstrained freedom. ...
... Theo số liệu từ sở kế hoạch đầu tư tính đến tháng 9/2022 tổng số doanh nghiệp đang hoạt động là hơn 340.000 doanh nghiệp trên địa bàn thành phố Hà Nội. Trong số đó, số lượng doanh nghiệp quy mô siêu nhỏ tương đối lớn và đang gặp nhiều khó khăn, điển hình như: Quy mô DN quá nhỏ, thiếu vốn, hoạt động manh mún, nhỏ lẻ, chưa bài bản, thiếu tầm nhìn chiến lược, phát triển dài hơi, bền vững, hạn chế về công nghệ, trình độ quản lý và chất lượng nguồn lao động còn bất cập... [1] Sự phức tạp và những thách thức mới trong nền kinh tế số hiện nay (đại dịch, giá dầu, lãi suất, thay đổi công nghệ, khai báo trực tuyến, định danh điện tử, thương mại điện tử...) đang đòi hỏi các doanh nghiệp siêu nhỏ trên địa bàn Thành phố Hà Nội phải tập trung vào kiểm soát hợp lý chi phí kinh doanh, tối đa hóa hiệu quả và hiệu suất của hoạt động, đảm bảo sức khỏe tài chính kết hợp tận dụng các cơ hội, các ưu đãi và hỗ trợ từ Thành phố trong kinh doanh. Chuyển đổi số trong kế toán là một trong những biện pháp quan trọng mà các doanh nghiệp siêu nhỏ của Hà Nội hướng tới do việc tự động hóa quy trình, tối đa hóa tốc độ xử lý thông tin, kết nối liên tục các bộ phận và nhân viên trong mọi hoàn cảnh, tối ưu về nhân sự, nguồn lực. ...
... Additionally, an increase in the size of the choice set has been shown to lead to an increase in preference for easily justifiable alternatives (Sela et al., 2009). These effects are commonly referred to as the paradox of choice, highlighting that a greater array of choices does not necessarily equate to better outcomes (Schwartz, 2004). ...
Studies of contextual choice typically use three option choice sets to evaluate how preference relations depend on the values of a third decoy option. However, often real‐world decisions are made using choice sets with many more than three alternatives, such as in online shopping. Three experiments tested for attraction and compromise decoy effects in choice sets that varied the number and ordering of alternatives using a within‐subjects preferential choice grocery shopping task. In Experiment 1, attraction and compromise effects were significantly reduced as alternatives increased from three to nine. Experiment 2 found significantly greater attraction effects in nine alternative choice sets ordered by attributes compared with a random ordering. Experiment 3 used eye tracking and found significant attraction effects in choice sets with 3, 9, and 15 alternatives, but the effect was reduced with increasing alternatives. Eye tracking revealed that participants engaged in more by‐dimension comparisons as the number of alternatives increased, but, contrary to previous research, the proportion of by‐alternative to by‐dimension transitions was not linearly predictive of decoy effects. With increased alternatives, the proportion of the total information attended to decreased, leading to worse choice outcomes, and participants were more likely to engage in a lexicographic decision‐making strategy.
... The foundational perspective of the interpersonal comparison "given a range of possible persons for comparison, someone close to one's own ability or opinion will be chosen for comparison" [Festinger, 1954, p. 121], is implicitly embraced by his followers [Krueger, 2000, p. 323]. Simultaneously, the phenomenon of social comparison is identified as detrimental to individuals' well-being [Schwartz, 2005]. Social media addiction is particularly pronounced among adolescents who utilize social media as a means of fulfilling their psychological needs [Przybylski et al., 2013]. ...
The pervasive and omnipresent penetration of the Internet in our lives is inevitably changing our behaviour and the financial industry as such. This study discusses the psychological phenomenon known as the 'Fear of Missing Out' (FOMO) by elucidating its psychological basis and definition and why and how its effects are amplified under the influence of social media and social trading media. The study will demonstrate how FOMO and human interaction with social media and social trading networks can lead to irrational decision-making, financial risk-taking, and harm to personal and family wealth and psychological well-being. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing these effects and making more rational and informed choices in trading and investment to avoid gambling behaviour, copy investing, and trading, following the traders in the social trading network, which leads to excessive risk-taking. This study aims to utilize the advancements in behavioural finance and neural processes to explain the mechanism and impact of FOMO, trying to give a basis to safeguard individual e-traders from financial market errors and protect their personal and family wealth.
... Indeed, the technological affordances of the DAW such as a facilitated access to MIDI sample libraries have transformed the traditional production sequence of composing -recording -mixing into a fluid process that does not separate production stages (Bell, 2014(Bell, , 2018. A study of the music-making practice of popular electronic music students in Norway associates this fluid process with the performance strategies of flow and improvisation (Røshol & Sørbø, 2020), to cope with 'the paradox of choice' (Schwartz, 2004) created by the DAW environment's unlimited number of 10 Different DAWs are designed to respond to different production needs that depend on the musical genre. Though, some DAWs may be perceived as high tech due the type of production they are commonly used for, and the advanced technical skills that are required to use them at their best potential. ...
In Mali, the introduction of 3G alongside growing access to digital audio technologies throughout the 2010s has led a sharp increase in the number of recording studios. Using an ethnography of Bamako studios, we establish a theoretical framework and a methodology to remap music production studies beyond the limits of a Northerncentric narrative. We discuss the notions of high, low and alt tech, and lofi and hifi within the 2010s’ recording studio literature. Drawing upon the description of a tradi-trap production, this paper contrasts local discourses and uses of globalized technologies to highlight the constraints and capabilities of studio practitioners.
... In effect, the opportunity costs of any action become too great if a decision-maker is forced to choose among many apparently plausible courses of action. 41 In one study of employee participation rates in plans offered by the Vanguard Group, a large investment management company, researchers found that as the number of plan options increased, the rate of employee participation decreased. 42 For every ten options added to the plan, employee participation decreased by 1.5 to 2 percent. ...
... The first set objective was to demonstrate the effect of the paradox of choice (Schwartz, 2004) on decisionmaking. When choosing, users search for the biggest utility possible, meaning the most useful, profitable and beneficial possible outcome. ...
Today’s digital advertising is predominantly founded on third party data such as cookies, which track the browsing behavior history. However, the data collected by cookies is incomplete, it merely reflects past browsing behavior instead of providing information on current interests and specific consumption desires. Due to an increased need of privacy, Google announced the disappearance of third party cookies. This means that websites will not be allowed to collect user data through cookies anymore in order to share it with third parties. As a result, companies will not be able to rely on user data gathered through external websites. On the other hand, zero party data allows companies to collect direct information from its users. Through the means of intentionally provided data by users (such as user profiles, forms and surveys), digital advertisers could create more pertinent advertising content without relying on third party cookies. When subject to digital advertising, several biases play a role in the decision making process. This work intends to assess the impact of digital advertising using zero party data, by analyzing the potential decrease in discrepancy between rational consumption intent and actual consumption considering behavioral biases. Browsing is defined as the “act of looking through a set of information quickly, without a specific sense of purpose”[1]. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman, D & Tvesky, A (2011) explain how the thinking system 1 uses past decision-making experience to generate a fast response, which is often influenced by a variety of behaviour biases. Therefore, browsing information collected by third party cookies results from system 1. Zero party data primarily relies on system 2. This thinking system works in a slower manner as it requires effort to lead to logical conclusions. It is used for instance to resolve hard problems and evaluate pros and cons. When answering a complex survey on personal goals, or completing a form requiring conscious attention, then, system 2 is used. As zero party data consists of more meaningful and intentionally provided information compared to third party data, digital advertisement based on zero party data has a higher likelihood that rational consumption intent and actual consumption are in line. The methodology conducted consists of research through two surveys (which served as A/B test) and interviews to suggest an alternative approach to third party cookies. Through the surveys and interviews, eight biases and heuristics present in the user journey were identified; the paradox of choice, the availability bias, the confirmation bias, the consistency bias, the bandwagon effect, the anchoring bias, the Ikea effect, and the affect heuristic. Each section aims to analyze how these biases affect the online consumption process of a user in both scenarios of third party data and zero party data. Each outcome revolves around how to use the identified bias in the benefit of the user using zero party data. Digital advertisement based on zero party data is a win-win solution for the user and the advertisement company.
... Cette profusion peut mener à des situations de surabondance de choix -notion que nous définirons dans la section 3.1.2 -et paradoxalement à une faible diversité consommée (Arnold, 2016;Scheibehenne et al., 2010;Schwartz, 2004 Si la profusion d'offres représente un argument marketing pour les plateformes culturelles numériques, elle peut également engendrer une situation de surabondance de choix (Bollen et al., 2010;Ferwerda et al., 2019;Gomez-Uribe & Hunt, 2016). Il est question de surabondance de choix lorsque « la complexité d'un problème décisionnel auquel fait face un individu excède ses ressources cognitives » (Chernev et al., 2015) en raison d'un trop grand nombre d'options (Scheibehenne et al., 2010). ...
Partant d'un relatif constat d'échec des politiques culturelles françaises à l'heure de l'abondance culturelle, ce travail interroge les déterminants du choix de consommation culturelle et de l'accessibilité des offres par le prisme de la catégorisation des produits culturels. Une première partie aborde le problème par une étude de cas portant sur 12 plateformes culturelles numériques, puis par 12 entretiens semi-directifs auprès de consommateurs. Nous confrontons l’organisation du catalogue par le marché à l’organisation des répertoires culturels des consommateurs. Nous nous livrons ensuite à l’étude d’un marché particulier, celui de la musique classique en France, dont le public vieillit et se raréfie. Là encore, nous confrontons l’offre à la demande au travers de l’étude successive de 24 offres de concerts se présentant comme étant accessibles et de 12 entretiens semi-directifs auprès de consommateurs présentant divers niveaux d’affinité envers la musique classique. Par la mobilisation de deux cadres théoriques, l’étude des spectres de Derrida et la violence symbolique de Bourdieu, nous pensons le rôle des codes du concert de musique classique dans l’appréhension de l’expérience. Nos résultats questionnent les caractéristiques particulières que la littérature en marketing prête à la consommation culturelle et au produit culturel. Par le prisme de la catégorisation, nous montrons l’importance de l'anticipation de l'expérience dans le choix de l’expérience culturelle et son accessibilité, questionnons le caractère exploratoire de la consommation culturelle, et enjoignons la recherche à considérer l'ensemble de ses déterminants psychologiques, sociologiques et ceux liés au marché.
... Without this, on the other hand, a formal or interpretive error with significant consequences may be made due to lack of skills. Besides, although the increasing number of options in measurement software increases its capabilities, from a psychological point of view, too many options to choose from is a source of stress, a sense of paralysis and dissatisfaction for humans [53]. A hint of this choice, or at least the existence of default options for a given application, will make work much easier. ...
... There is a stereotyped notion that more choices equal more freedom, which indeed is a good thing. But in fact, it's not true which was well understood from the empirical evidence proved by Barry Schwartz (2004) arguing that choice overload harms us. The effects of this bias go beyond complicating our decision-making process, which impacts our affective domain (emotions), decreasing our satisfaction with choices made and increasing the inner guilt. ...
Purpose-Adolescence is the life phase between childhood and adulthood (aging from 10 to 19, as defined by the World Health Organisation). It is a stage of Identity Crisis; pushed back by undefined status, increased pressures, irrational decisions, and the search for self. 'Making a choice' is what exhibits one's freedom and autonomy. It is axiomatic that a choice is good, but too many choices may confuse at times. Such a paralytic situation drowns the adolescents' thoughts to indecisiveness and experience a misery-induced-tyranny. Hence, this paper discusses on how adolescents take decisions out of informed choices from various life aspects; reasons for their decision paralysis and defence mechanisms they adopt to rationalise their decisions. The study highlights decision-making styles among adolescents as 'Maximisers' and 'Satisficers' (Simon, 1956). Maximisers tend to be perfectionists, describing moreover an uncompromised and distressed approach to life. Satisficers opt for best possible choice, imparting happiness within themselves with what they opt. Design/ Methodology-Primary data was collected based on the standardised 'Maximisation Scale', with thirteen items propounded by Barry Schwartz in 2002 along with borrowed concepts from the 'Desirability of Control Scale' derived from the studies of Burger, J. M., & Cooper, H. M. (1979). The new scale was developed and validated based on thirty-nine statements under three factors, namely High Standards, Alternative Search and Decision Difficulty measured on the five-point rating Likert scale. The sample size estimated for the study was 232 respondents amongst adolescents from the state of Kerala, India. Lottery method of sampling was adopted to collect samples from the total universe of adolescents in Kerala. Data was grouped classifying them based on gender-Male, Female and Transgenders. Findings-As per most of the adolescence respondents tends to be 'maximisers' as the decision scores in these cases ranged from 71 to 117. Based on the objectives we found that adolescents take decisions out of informed choices from various life aspects. The analysis of data has been hypothesised and proved that their decision style is influenced by their demographical characteristics. It was also discovered that there is direct correlation between high design factors, alternative searches, and decision difficulty factors of adolescents. Practical Implications: This paper provides practical insights on how adolescents take up decisions as 'maximisers' or 'satisficers' and how this stand leads them facing decision paralysis due to overchoice problem. Originality/ Value-The paper is the first of its kind not ever published elsewhere and is original in nature.
Human information behavior (HIB) includes individual’s or group’s actions and interactions with any information system. In this chapter, we cover the main UX theories and laws that define human emotion, psychology, and cognition in information systems. We discuss how these behaviors intersect with emerging and evolving technologies, and how to apply theory to Information Architecture and UX design.
This paper introduces my book that emphasizes the dynamic, interdependent nature of our economy and how best to dampen its cyclical oscillations. It emphasizes how technology with almost zero marginal cost on the internet has produced an underlying transformation from a variable cost economy to a fixed cost economy that has shifted the money flow from labor to capital over time.
Many important pro‐environmental conservation practices do not only require money, but they also require time. This paper examines what role the shadow price of time plays in shaping green preferences across different behavioral domains. Using household production theory, we develop a simple model of “selfish” green consumer behavior that predicts how (i) rising wages and (ii) longer working hours influence how consumers trade‐off between purchasing relatively expensive green goods and engaging in time‐intensive conservation practices. The model predicts that rising wages will increase the consumer's Willingness To Pay (WTP) for green goods, but also reduce their propensity to adopt time‐intensive conservation practices. A second prediction is that self‐perceived financial stress and time stress will have asymmetric effects on inhibiting the adoption of green purchasing and conservation practices. Although time stress is predicted to have no significant influence on consumers' tendency to purchase green goods, it will inhibit the consumers' tendency to engage in time‐intensive conservation practices. The reverse is true for financial stress. Empirical evidence sourced from a French household survey supports these hypotheses and policy implications are discussed.
BACKGROUND
The genetic composition of embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be examined with preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Until recently, PGT was limited to detecting single-gene, high-risk pathogenic variants, large structural variants, and aneuploidy. Recent advances have made genome-wide genotyping of IVF embryos feasible and affordable, raising the possibility of screening embryos for their risk of polygenic diseases such as breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, or schizophrenia. Despite a heated debate around this new technology, called polygenic embryo screening (PES; also PGT-P), it is already available to IVF patients in some countries. Several articles have studied epidemiological, clinical, and ethical perspectives on PES; however, a comprehensive, principled review of this emerging field is missing.
OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE
This review has four main goals. First, given the interdisciplinary nature of PES studies, we aim to provide a self-contained educational background about PES to reproductive specialists interested in the subject. Second, we provide a comprehensive and critical review of arguments for and against the introduction of PES, crystallizing and prioritizing the key issues. We also cover the attitudes of IVF patients, clinicians, and the public towards PES. Third, we distinguish between possible future groups of PES patients, highlighting the benefits and harms pertaining to each group. Finally, our review, which is supported by ESHRE, is intended to aid healthcare professionals and policymakers in decision-making regarding whether to introduce PES in the clinic, and if so, how, and to whom.
SEARCH METHODS
We searched for PubMed-indexed articles published between 1/1/2003 and 1/3/2024 using the terms ‘polygenic embryo screening’, ‘polygenic preimplantation’, and ‘PGT-P’. We limited the review to primary research papers in English whose main focus was PES for medical conditions. We also included papers that did not appear in the search but were deemed relevant.
OUTCOMES
The main theoretical benefit of PES is a reduction in lifetime polygenic disease risk for children born after screening. The magnitude of the risk reduction has been predicted based on statistical modelling, simulations, and sibling pair analyses. Results based on all methods suggest that under the best-case scenario, large relative risk reductions are possible for one or more diseases. However, as these models abstract several practical limitations, the realized benefits may be smaller, particularly due to a limited number of embryos and unclear future accuracy of the risk estimates. PES may negatively impact patients and their future children, as well as society. The main personal harms are an unindicated IVF treatment, a possible reduction in IVF success rates, and patient confusion, incomplete counselling, and choice overload. The main possible societal harms include discarded embryos, an increasing demand for ‘designer babies’, overemphasis of the genetic determinants of disease, unequal access, and lower utility in people of non-European ancestries. Benefits and harms will vary across the main potential patient groups, comprising patients already requiring IVF, fertile people with a history of a severe polygenic disease, and fertile healthy people. In the United States, the attitudes of IVF patients and the public towards PES seem positive, while healthcare professionals are cautious, sceptical about clinical utility, and concerned about patient counselling.
WIDER IMPLICATIONS
The theoretical potential of PES to reduce risk across multiple polygenic diseases requires further research into its benefits and harms. Given the large number of practical limitations and possible harms, particularly unnecessary IVF treatments and discarded viable embryos, PES should be offered only within a research context before further clarity is achieved regarding its balance of benefits and harms. The gap in attitudes between healthcare professionals and the public needs to be narrowed by expanding public and patient education and providing resources for informative and unbiased genetic counselling.
Large language models such as GPT-3 and ChatGPT can mimic human-to-human conversation with unprecedented fidelity, which enables many applications such as conversational agents for education and non-player characters in video games. In this work, we investigate the underlying personality structure that a GPT-3-based chatbot expresses during conversations with a human. We conducted a user study to collect 147 chatbot personality descriptors from 86 participants while they interacted with the GPT-3-based chatbot for three weeks. Then, 425 new participants rated the 147 personality descriptors in an online survey. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis on the collected descriptors and show that, though overlapping, human personality models do not fully transfer to the chatbot's personality as perceived by humans. We also show that the perceived personality is significantly different from that of virtual personal assistants, where users focus rather on serviceability and functionality. We discuss the implications of ever-evolving large language models and the change they affect in users' perception of agent personalities.
Markets are often seen as beneficial epistemic institutions because they can transmit information via the price mechanism. But real-life markets often create various epistemic pitfalls for participants. In market societies, individuals, qua consumers, must make numerous difficult decisions for which they need to find relevant information. Depending on their positions in society—which tends to disadvantage women, non-white individuals, and working-class individuals—their opportunities for doing so can be very different. Mechanisms such as time poverty, lack of relevant skills, lack of networks, inability to pay for advice, a scarcity mindset, or lack of knowledge about how to fight back when one's rights have been violated, mean that structurally disadvantaged individuals often end up making “bad” decisions that threaten their welfare and their ability to lead an autonomous life. Moreover, some market actors target individuals in difficult situations and make profit by exploiting their vulnerabilities. I discuss these epistemic mechanisms, which are intertwined with various other forms of harm, and also mechanisms that can help address the problem by public policy: strategies for empowering individuals, and ways of regulating or replacing markets in order to prevent the exploitation of epistemically vulnerable groups.
Consumer culture in modern societies is interpreted as a culture that maximizes the freedom of consumer choice. The emancipation of individual freedoms in the form of consumer choice is positively associated with the growth of material standards of living and the affluence of a society. At the same time, an ambivalent situation arises in the form of unintended consequences, whereby customers with increasing freedoms in the areas of consumer choice run into problems making decisions and the paradox of choice, all in a landscape that is becoming less clear and oversaturated with options and opportunities. The goal is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ambivalent character of contemporary consumer culture in the context of intensified individualization and external options for consumer choice. The authors also seek to propose a theoretical model of consumer mentalities that is more resistant to the negative effects of the paradox of choice. This model is based on the Epicurean consumption pattern of voluntary simplicity, reducing aspirations, and delayed gratification.
El concepto de causa contractual ha sido inadecuadamente abordado desde Domat, generándose un estado de ininteligibilidad y de posiciones doctrinales que defienden que la causa es irrelevante, excluyéndola del pensamiento jurídico, o que es lo único relevante, con la que se justifican niveles excesivos de intervención en el mercado. Este trabajo busca incorporar en la discusión jurídica elementos psicológicos que orienten la comprensión de dicho concepto, su relación con la autonomía de la voluntad como categoría jurídica y, en consecuencia, el tipo de intervención estatal adecuado. A partir de las ideas de Joaquín Dualde, sostengo que el consentimiento es la causa de los contratos, y que el interés del derecho debe orientarse a las causas del consentimiento, esto es, a los elementos y eventos que configuran esa voluntad cuya manifestación perfecciona el contrato. Se analizan los elementos irracionales en esta configuración, y finalmente se estudia, a partir del Enfoque Humanista de la psicología y del principio de individuación propuesto por Carl Jung, la posibilidad de fortalecer la libertad efectiva de los sujetos jurídicos.
To understand the impression you want the other or the others to have of yourself.
Local energy transition initiatives – as part of a broader climate-benign and sustainability policy – have become a focal point of future-oriented resource and environmental strategies. Place-based energy conversion however, has turned out to be a very complicated task, from both a governance and research perspective. The present study seeks to sketch out the contours of local sustainable energy planning, with a particular emphasis on (i) practical data and evidence-based information requirements, (ii) the involvement and engagement of citizens and stakeholders, and (iii) the great research potential provided by digital information technology. To that end, a comprehensive mind map for energy transition is depicted, inspired by first experiments in the city of Rotterdam.
In the age of automated commerce, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) tools, the role of trademarks in shopping may be diminishing. For instance, the Alexa voice assistant will announce only a couple of purchase options under specific trademarks, concealing the plenitude of other products on its interface. Another example is that Amazon will pursue the shipping-then-shopping scenario, with trademarks being perceived by consumers only upon delivery. Moreover, it has been predicted that, in some cases, the new AI/ML tools will search for products irrespective of trademarks and will do so faster than any human being. Under those circumstances, consumer search costs will be lower, not because of trademarks but because of the new shopping architecture based on those tools. While lowering consumer search costs has traditionally been the role of trademarks, the availability of other tools for the same purpose may be a positive development. However, another trend is that the new AI/ML tools are constantly taking part in consumer decision-making, possibly reducing consumers’ freedom of choice and personal autonomy. In attempting to tackle this issue, it is worth approaching trademarks from the perspective of choice and autonomy. Seen from this angle, it may be possible to learn specific lessons from European Union (EU) trademark law that will assist in reshaping the automated – and autonomous – shopping architecture for the benefit of consumer well-being. In this exercise, close attention will be paid to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, with its discourse on product alternatives, while due regard will be shown to the new legislation on the platform economy in the EU. In the end, this paper will demonstrate that trademarks are valuable not only because they help reduce search costs but also because they promote alternatives and, thus, improve consumers’ general autonomy.
We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by selecting among indicator topics within each theme. This adaptability and holistic approach position the UNI as an essential instrument for nature-positive transformations. With the institutional support of IUCN, the UNI offers an unprecedented opportunity for cities to assess and enhance their contributions towards a more sustainable and biodiverse future.
With the advancement of online technologies in recent years, crowdsourcing data has been used for numerous applications in many fields. The preference sequences obtained through crowdsourcing are valuable resources for ranking. However, the aggregation of incomplete and inconsistent preferences is complicated. To address these challenges, this study proposed a novel method termed robust crowd ranking (RCR) based on a consistent fuzzy c-means approach to increase the robustness and accessibility of aggregated preference sequences obtained through crowdsourcing. To verify the robustness, accessibility, and accuracy of RCR, comprehensive experiments were conducted using synthetic and real data. The simulation results validated that the RCR outperforms Borda Count, Dodgson, IRV and Tideman methods.
Industry 4.0, on which many different studies have already been written, brings with it a completely different outlook, especially in IT. Cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, networks and cloud-based big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics are essential elements that have also found their way into Metrology 4.0, sometimes called Metrology of the Future. In the paper, measurement technologies for Metrology 4.0 were presented. They belong to coordinate measurement techniques in different scales: macro, micro, and meso. Optical scanning and computed tomography were discussed, focusing on achievable big data. From an IT point of view, the use of artificial intelligence was shown. The possibility of using augmented and virtual reality was also depicted with a short note on cybersecurity. Finally, some ideas regarding Metrology for the Future were briefly presented. It will probably be more oriented to man and use the planet’s natural resources more efficiently. Systems will be based on objects working together, with the definition of connections using the idea of blockchain. And as the data overgrows, data management systems and applications will appear, allowing the user to select the most relevant data.KeywordsMetrologyDimensional MeasurementsArtificial IntelligenceAugmented RealityScaleSustainable Manufacturing
The serial‐order effect wherein originality increases over time is one of the most robust findings in modern psychology. This effect, found in either individual or group sessions, is based on associative and spreading activation mechanisms: Mental association takes place in temporal sequential order from commonly (closely) to unusually (distantly) related semantic concepts stored in long‐term memory. Thus, data from previous studies might suggest that, in collective problem‐solving, we endure long meetings and pay closer attention to ideas presented toward the end of the meeting. However, members in innovative organizations have been reported to typically generate ideas on their own before group brainstorming. We hypothesized that in the subsequent group brainstorming session members would state their most appealing ideas first due to impression management. Our results from the individual‐then‐group hybrid brainstorming paradigm show that idea quality during the group session peaks early and quickly decays, in terms of both the number of high‐quality ideas produced and the proportion of ideas that are high‐quality. This “reverse” serial‐order effect implies that meeting for a reasonably brief time and looking into ideas shared early during the meeting may lead to better decisions—if individuals generated ideas prior to the meeting. We also found that flexibility (the rate at which new idea categories were introduced) dropped rapidly, but at a certain point of time, it stopped decreasing. This potentially suggests that extended group interaction after individual idea generation could bring greater idea diversity rather than higher overall quality. In addition, we found that the updated, cognitively constrained organizational norm for brainstorming, which likely narrows the scope of search, led to greater idea quantity (fluency), quality, and flexibility than the traditional, unconstrained norm. Our work challenges the traditional application of spreading activation theory to interpersonal, group, or organizational settings and calls for attention to the specific communicative processes of problem‐solving and decision‐making in question.
In 3 studies the authors compared the responses of self-rated happy and unhappy students in situations involving choice. In Study 1, high school seniors evaluated colleges after applying for admission and then later after making their selections. Happy students tended to be more satisfied than unhappy ones with the colleges they ultimately chose and those they ultimately rejected, and they more sharply devalued the colleges that rejected them. Studies 2 and 3 dealt with postdecisional consequences of less consequential decisions about fancy desserts. In Study 2, unhappy participants sharply derogated the desserts they rejected or were denied, relative to those selected by or for them, whereas happy participants showed no such derogation. These group differences, moreover, proved to be largely independent of self-esteem and optimism. The design of Study 3 helped explicate underlying mechanisms by inducing both groups to distract themselves or to self-reflect. Doing so eliminated all group differences. Implications of the results for the link between cognitive processes and hedonic consequences are discussed.
Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-rated unhappy individuals would be more sensitive to social comparison information than would happy ones. Study 1 showed that whereas unhappy students’ affect and self-assessments were heavily affected by a peer who solved anagrams either faster or slower, happy students’ responses were affected by the presence of a slower peer only. These between-group differences proved to be largely independent of 2 factors associated with happiness, i.e., self-esteem and optimism. Study 2 showed that whereas the unhappy group's responses to feedback about their own teaching performance were heavily influenced by a peer who performed even better or even worse, happy students’ responses again were moderated only by information about inferior peer performance. Implications for our appreciation of the link between cognitive processes and “hedonic” consequences are discussed.
Subjective well-being (SWB) in 55 nations, reported in probability surveys and a large college student sample, was correlated with social, economic, and cultural characteristics of the nations. The SWB surveys, representing nations that include three fourths of the earth's population, showed strong convergence. Separate measures of the predictor variables also converged and formed scales with high reliability, with the exception of the comparison variables. High income, individualism, human rights, and societal equality correlated strongly with each other, and with SWB across surveys. Income correlated with SWB even after basic need fulfillment was controlled. Only individualism persistently correlated with SWB when other predictors were controlled. Cultural homogeneity, income growth, and income comparison showed either low or inconsistent relations with SWB.
This article describes a scale measuring dispositional optimism, defined in terms of generalized outcome expectancies. Two preliminary studies assessed the scale’s psychometric properties and its relationships with several other instruments. The scale was then used in a longitudinal study of symptom reporting among a group of undergraduates. Specifically, respondents were asked to complete three questionnaires 4 weeks before the end of a semester. Included in the questionnaire battery was the measure of optimism, a measure of private self-consciousness, and a 39-item physical symptom checklist. Subjects completed the same set of questionnaires again on the last day of class. Consistent with predictions, subjects who initially reported being highly optimistic were subsequently less likely to report being bothered by symptoms (even after correcting for initial symptom-report levels) than were subjects who initially reported being less optimistic. This effect tended to be stronger among persons high in private self-consciousness than among those lower in private self-consciousness. Discussion centers on other health related applications of the optimism scale, and the relationships between our theoretical orientation and several related theories.
The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model as outlined by L. Y. Abramson et al claims that an explanatory style in which bad events are explained by internal, stable, and global causes is associated with depressive symptoms. This style is claimed to be a risk factor for subsequent depression when bad events are encountered. A variety of new investigations of the helplessness reformulation are described that have employed 5 research strategies: cross-sectional correlational studies, longitudinal studies, experiments of nature, laboratory experiments, and case studies. Ss in these investigations included children, college students, poor women, depressed patients, and prisoners. Most of these studies involved the use of the Attributional Style Questionnaire and measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory and Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. These studies converge in their support for the learned helplessness reformulation. (120 ref)
People prefer to make changeable decisions rather than unchangeable decisions because they do not realize that they may be more satisfied with the latter. Photography students believed that having the opportunity to change their minds about which prints to keep would not influence their liking of the prints. However, those who had the opportunity to change their minds liked their prints less than those who did not (Study 1). Although the opportunity to change their minds impaired the postdecisional processes that normally promote satisfaction (Study 2a), most participants wanted to have that opportunity (Study 2b). The results demonstrate that errors in affective forecasting can lead people to behave in ways that do not optimize their happiness and well-being.
Americans now live in a time and a place in which freedom and autonomy are valued above all else and in which expanded opportunities for self-determination are regarded as a sign of the psychological well-being of individuals and the moral well-being of the culture. This article argues that freedom, autonomy, and self-determination can become excessive, and that when that happens, freedom can be experienced as a kind of tyranny. The article further argues that unduly influenced by the ideology of economics and rational-choice theory, modern American society has created an excess of freedom, with resulting increases in people's dissatisfaction with their lives and in clinical depression. One significant task for a future psychology of optimal functioning is to deemphasize individual freedom and to determine which cultural constraints are necessary for people to live meaningful and satisfying lives.
The present research investigated the relationship between individual differences in maximizing versus satisficing (i.e., seeking to make the single best choice, rather than a choice that is merely good enough) and well-being, in interaction with the society in which an individual lives. Data from three distinct cultural groups (adults), drawn respectively from the U.S. (N=307), Western Europe (N=263), and China (N=218), were analyzed. The results showed that, in societies where choice is abundant (i.e., U.S. and Western Europe), maximizers reported less well-being than satisficers, and this difference was mediated by experienced regret. However, in the non-western society (China), maximizing was unrelated to well-being. Although in China maximizing was associated with more experiences of regret, regret had no substantial relationship to well-being. These patterns also emerged for the individual facets of the maximizing scale, although with a notable difference between the U.S. and Europe for the High Standards facet. It is argued that, in societies where abundant individual choice is highly valued and considered the ultimate route to personal happiness, maximizers' dissatisfaction and regret over imperfect choices is a detrimental factor in well-being, whereas it is a much less crucial determinant of well-being in societies that place less emphasis on choice as the way to happiness.
Aristotle proposed that to achieve happiness and success, people should cultivate virtues at mean or intermediate levels between deficiencies and excesses. In stark contrast to this assertion that virtues have costs at high levels, a wealth of psychological research has focused on demonstrating the well-being and performance benefits of positive traits, states, and experiences. This focus has obscured the prevalence and importance of nonmonotonic inverted-U-shaped effects, whereby positive phenomena reach inflection points at which their effects turn negative. We trace the evidence for nonmonotonic effects in psychology and provide recommendations for conceptual and empirical progress. We conclude that for psychology in general and positive psychology in particular, Aristotle's idea of the mean may serve as a useful guide for developing both a descriptive and a prescriptive account of happiness and success.
© The Author(s) 2011.
The provision of choice in terms of how people use goods and services has been proposed as a vehicle of improvement of social welfare. This article highlights some of the costs and benefits of creating choice, and it discusses how much choice policy makers and other agents (e.g., employers, retailers) should ideally grant and in what form they should grant it.
The wide range of 401(k) plans offered to employees has raised the question of whether there is such as thing as too much choice. The 401(k) participation rates among clients of the Vanguard Group were studied to verify the assumption that more choice is more desirable and intrinsically motivating. It was found that 401(k) plans that offered more funds had lower probability of employee participation. © Pension Research Council, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2004. All rights reserved.
W. Wilson's (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of "happiness." A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener's (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. In the current article, the authors review current evidence for Wilson's conclusions and discuss modern theories of SWB that stress dispositional influences, adaptation, goals, and coping strategies. The next steps in the evolution of the field are to comprehend the interaction of psychological factors with life circumstances in producing SWB, to understand the causal pathways leading to happiness, understand the processes underlying adaptation to events, and develop theories that explain why certain variables differentially influence the different components of SWB (life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews the literature which examined the effects of exposing organisms to aversive events which they cannot control. Motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability are examined. It is hypothesized that when events are uncontrollable the organism learns that its behavior and outcomes are independent, and this learning produces the motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability. Research which supports this learned helplessness hypothesis is described along with alternative hypotheses which have been offered as explanations of the learned helplessness effect. The application of this hypothesis to rats and man is examined. (114 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Americans live in a political, social, and historical context that values personal freedom and choice above all else, an emphasis that has been amplified by contemporary psychology. However, this article reviews research that shows that in non-Western cultures and among working-class Westerners, freedom and choice do not have the meaning or importance they do for the university-educated people who have been the subjects of almost all research on this topic. We cannot assume that choice, as understood by educated, affluent Westerners, is a universal aspiration. The meaning and significance of choice are cultural constructions. Moreover, even when choice can foster freedom, empowerment, and independence, it is not an unalloyed good. Too much choice can produce a paralyzing uncertainty, depression, and selfishness. In the United States, the path to well-being may require that we strike a balance between the positive and negative consequences of proliferating choice in every domain of life. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
I review the recent literature on satisfaction and happiness, identify some plausible next steps to take at the frontiers of the research field and offer some suggestions to facilitate those steps. Using partial correlation techniques, substantial levels of covariation are found among the variables that are used in predictions of satisfaction and happiness with life as a whole from satisfaction with specific domains (e.g. family life, health). Using path analysis, confirmation is found in a dozen domains for a model which has satisfaction as a function of a perceived goal-achievement gap, and the latter as a function of comparisons with previous best experience and the status of average folks. Using discriminant analysis, satisfaction with family life is found to be a powerful and predominant discriminator among three groups, identified as Frustrated (dissatisfied and unhappy), Resigned (satisfied and unhappy) and Achievers (satisfied and happy).
Using a ''subjectivist'' approach to the assessment of happiness, a new 4-item measure of global subjective happiness was developed and validated in 14 studies with a total of 2 732 participants. Data was collected in the United States from students on two college campuses and one high school campus, from community adults in two California cities, and from older adults. Students and community adults in Moscow, Russia also participated in this research. Results indicated that the Subjective Happiness Scale has high internal consistency, which was found to be stable across samples. Test-retest and self-peer correlations suggested good to excellent reliability, and construct validation studies of convergent and discriminant validity confirmed the use of this scale to measure the construct of subjective happiness. The rationale for developing a new measure of happiness, as well as advantages of this scale, are discussed.
Counterfactuals are mental representations of alternatives to the past and produce consequences that are both beneficial and aversive to the individual. These apparently contradictory effects are integrated in a functionalist model of counterfactual thinking. The author reviews research in support of the assertions that (a) counterfactual thinking is activated automatically in response to negative affect, (b) the content of counterfactuals targets particularly likely causes of misfortune, (c) counterfactuals produce negative affective consequences through a contrast-effect mechanism and positive inferential consequences through a causal-inference mechanism, and (d) the net effect of counterfactual thinking is beneficial.
Aristotle proposed that to achieve happiness and success, people should cultivate virtues at mean or intermediate levels between deficiencies and excesses. In stark contrast to this assertion that virtues have costs at high levels, a wealth of psychological research has focused on demonstrating the well-being and performance benefits of positive traits, states, and experiences. This focus has obscured the prevalence and importance of nonmonotonic inverted-U-shaped effects, whereby positive phenomena reach inflection points at which their effects turn negative. We trace the evidence for nonmonotonic effects in psychology and provide recommendations for conceptual and empirical progress. We conclude that for psychology in general and positive psychology in particular, Aristotle’s idea of the mean may serve as a useful guide for developing both a descriptive and a prescriptive account of happiness and success.
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself. Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.
Utilizing sophisticated methodology and three decades of research by the world's leading expert on happiness, Happiness challenges the present thinking of the causes and consequences of happiness and redefines our modern notions of happiness. shares the results of three decades of research on our notions of happiness covers the most important advances in our understanding of happiness offers readers unparalleled access to the world's leading experts on happiness provides "real world" examples that will resonate with general readers as well as scholars Winner of the 2008 PSP Prose Award for Excellence in Psychology, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers.
• As part of the National Institute of Mental Health—Clinical Research Branch Collaborative Program on the Psychobiology of Depression Clinical Study, 2,289 relatives of 523 probands with affective disorder were interviewed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and diagnosed for major depressive disorder by the Research Diagnostic Criteria. Data were analyzed using life-table and survival methods. The findings suggest a progressive increase in rates of depression in successive birth cohorts through the 20th century and an earlier age at onset of depression in each birth cohort. A predominance of female depressives was found in all birth cohorts but the magnitude of female-male differences fluctuated over the decades. The existence of these trends is reported to stimulate further research. These findings are discussed in terms of possible gene-environment interactions. However, no conclusive causal inferences can be drawn pending further investigation.
Before making a final choice, people screen available options for acceptability; those considered “good enough” constitute a goal-category. Foraging theories assume screening is an adaptation whereby low-ranked options are accepted when search costs (i.e., effort or risk associated with striving) are high and rejected when search costs are low. We argue that some individuals, called interval strategists, typically consider many options acceptable and, hence, form broad goal-categories; others, called point strategists, typically consider few options acceptable and form narrow goal-categories. We also argue that because of limited capacity, there is a trade-off between encoding ends and encoding means so that as the goal-category range increases, detailed planning decreases. Findings in our first study support this analysis. The next two studies assumed search costs in Poland (e.g., the effort or risk involved in shopping, housing, traveling) were greater under central planning than under the current market economy. Hence, prior to 1989, broad goal-categories were more adaptive than narrow goal-categories; since 1989, however, the reverse has been true. Consistent with this hypothesis, in Study 2, Poles who were point strategists perceived their conditions of life and self-efficacy had improved more since 1989 than did Poles who were interval strategists. Study 3 demonstrates a capacity to recognize which screening strategy is more adaptive under central planning and market conditions: An entrepreneur who failed prior to 1989 but succeeded afterward was inferred to be a point strategist, and one who succeeded prior to 1989 but failed afterward was inferred to be an interval strategist.
How does the attractiveness of a particular option depend on comparisons drawn between it and other alternatives? We observe that in many cases, comparisons hurt: When the options being compared have both meaningful advantages and meaningful disadvantages, comparison between options makes each option less attractive. The effects of comparison are crucial in choice problems involving grouped options, because the way in which options are grouped influences which comparisons are likely to be made. In particular, we propose that grouping focuses comparison, making within-group comparisons more likely than between-group comparisons. Consistent with this prediction, experimental results showed that grouping hurts: An option is more likely to be chosen when alone than when part of a group.
EVIDENCE EXISTS THAT PEOPLE DO NOT ALWAYS MAKE DECISIONS INVOLVING UNCERTAIN MONETARY REWARDS AS IF THEY WERE MAXIMIZING EXPECTED UTILITY OF FINAL ASSETS. EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS BEHAVIOR POSTULATE THAT THE COGNITIVE DEMANDS OF CONSISTENCY TO SUCH A THEORY ARE TOO GREAT. HOWEVER, SITUATIONS EXIST IN WHICH MORE THAN MENTAL SHORTCUTS ARE INVOLVED AND THESE ANOMALIES RAISE EQUATIONS ABOUT EXPECTED UTILITY THEORY AS A GUIDE TO BEHAVIOR. THIS STUDY EXPLORES THE POSSIBILITY THAT EXPECTED UTILITY THEORY APPEARS TO FAIL BECAUSE THE SINGLE OUTCOME DESCRIPTOR - MONEY - IS NOT SUFFICIENT. AFTER MAKING A DECISION UNDER UNCERTAINTY, A PERSON MAY DISCOVER, ON LEARNING THE RELEVANT OUTCOMES, THAT ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE WOULD HAVEBEEN PREFERABLE. THIS KNOWLEDGE MAY IMPART A SENSE OF LOSS,OR REGRET. THE DECISION MAKER WHO IS PREPARED TO TRADEOFF FINANCIAL RETURN IN ORDER TO AVOID REGRET WILL EXHIBIT SOME OF THE BEHAVIORAL PARADOXES OF DECISION THEORY.
Before making a final choice, people screen available options for acceptability; those considered "good enough" constitute a goal-category. Foraging theories assume screening is an adaptation whereby low-ranked options are accepted when search costs (i.e., effort or risk associated with striving) are high and rejected when search costs are low. We argue that some individuals, called interval strategists, typically consider many options acceptable and, hence, form broad goal-categories; others, called point strategists, typically consider few options acceptable and form narrow goal-categories. We also argue that because of limited capacity, there is a trade-off between encoding ends and encoding means so that as the goal-category range increases, detailed planning decreases. Findings in our first study support this analysis. The next two studies assumed search costs in Poland (e.g., the effort or risk involved in shopping, housing, traveling) were greater under central planning than under the current market economy. Hence, prior to 1989, broad goal-categories were more adaptive than narrow goal-categories; since 1989, however, the reverse has been true. Consistent with this hypothesis, in Study 2, Poles who were point strategists perceived their conditions of life and self-efficacy had improved more since 1989 than did Poles who were interval strategists. Study 3 demonstrates a capacity to recognize which screening strategy is more adaptive under central planning and market conditions: An entrepreneur who failed prior to 1989 but succeeded afterward was inferred to be a point strategist, and one who succeeded prior to 1989 but failed afterward was inferred to be an interval strategist.
Pleasures of the mind are different from pleasures of the body. There are two types of pleasures of the body: tonic pleasures and relief pleasures. Pleasures of the body are given by the contact senses and by the distance senses (seeing and hearing). The distance senses provide a special category of pleasure. Pleasures of the mind are not emotions; they are collections of emotions distributed over time. Some distributions of emotions over time are particularly pleasurable, such as episodes in which the peak emotion is strong and the final emotion is positive. The idea that all pleasurable stimuli share some general characteristic should be supplanted by the idea that humans have evolved domain-specific responses of attraction to stimuli. The emotions that characterize pleasures of the mind arise when expectations are violated, causing autonomic nervous system arousal and thereby triggering a search for an interpretation. Thus pleasures of the mind occur when an individual has a definite set of expectations (usually tacit) and the wherewithal to interpret the violation (usually by placing it in a narrative framework). Pleasures of the mind differ in the objects of the emotions they comprise. There is probably a
Introduction, 99. — I. Some general features of rational choice, 100.— II. The essential simplifications, 103. — III. Existence
and uniqueness of solutions, 111. — IV. Further comments on dynamics, 113. — V. Conclusion, 114. — Appendix, 115.
Reviews the research associated with self-determination or choice to document the pervasive, normative view that choice is "good." The authors question this view by pointing to cultural differences: Western cultures put a premium on personal independence and uniqueness; non-Western cultures value interdependence and connectedness with one's own group. Personal choice may be particularly important in a culture that values independence in that individual choice is a reflection of independence. The research reviewed in this chapter provides evidence for the importance of cultural variables in understanding self-determination motivation. The authors also describe work on the negative consequences of too many choices for motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
150 university students completed 3 measures of depressive symptomatology and several measures of perfectionism including self-oriented perfectionism, perfectionistic motivation, other-oriented perfectionism, and world-oriented perfectionism. Depression was measured by the Self-Rating Depression Scale and by the Depressive Experience Questionnaire. Consistent with predictions, all of the perfectionism measures, except the world-oriented perfectionism measure, were correlated positively with severity of depression and provided independent variance in the prediction of depression scores. Results confirm a relationship between perfectionism and levels of self-critical depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents an animal model of how learned helplessness may manifest itself as depression and anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Optimism, personality, and coping styles may alter the effects of stressful events through appraisal and stress reduction. The 1999 Kosovo crisis offered an opportunity to test this proposition under real-life, traumatic stress conditions. Dispositional optimism, personality, and coping contributions were predicted based on geographical distance and degree of reported stress for 3 groups: Kosovar refugees, Albanian citizens helping the refugees in Albania, and Albanian immigrants living in the United States. Results showed Kosovars significantly higher on all stress measures, and on maladjustment. Reduced optimism and reduced control coping were related to higher levels of maladjustment. Pessimism and escape coping showed no relation to psychological adjustment. Resilience was related to a combination of higher optimism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and control coping, paired with lower neuroticism.
Two laboratory studies explored how self-rated unhappy and happy students balance hedonically conflicting social comparison information, and tested whether unhappy students would be relatively more sensitive to hedonically consistent unfavorable information. In both studies, students working in teams of four competed against one other team on a novel verbal task. First, unhappy participants showed relatively greater sensitivity to undiluted unfavorable feedback—about group standing (e.g. your team ‘lost’; Study 1) and about group and individual standing (e.g. your team lost and you were placed last; Study 2). Second, unhappy students were more reactive than happy students to individual social comparison information in the context of relative group feedback. In Study 1, the moods and self-assessments of unhappy individuals (but not happy ones) after news of team defeat appeared to be buffered by the additional news of personal triumph. In Study 2, unhappy students showed relatively larger decreases in mood and ability assessments after unfavorable than after favorable individual feedback (i.e. ranking last versus first), regardless of whether they additionally learned that their teams had won or lost. The role of students' attributions and perceptions of their personal contribution was also explored. Implications of these findings for the links among social comparison, cognitive processes, and hedonic consequences are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We discuss the effects of anticipated and experienced regret on decision making under uncertainty. In previous research, using the standard, context-free, gamble paradigm, we found that decision makers anticipate the regret they can experience as a result of post-decisional feedback on forgone outcomes (Zeelenberg, Beattie, van der Pligt, & de Vries, 1996). In the present research we move away from the gamble paradigm, on to richer contexts. In Experiments 1 and 2, involving investment decision making and decision making in the ultimatum game, it is shown that the expectation of feedback on forgone outcomes influences decision making and can promote more risk seeking behavior. Experiment 3 focused on effects of retrospective regret and shows that actual feedback on foregone outcomes influences the experience of regret and subsequent decision making. The results of these studies support our earlier work on regret aversion.
Self-determination theory (SDT) maintains that an understanding of human motivation requires a consideration of innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. We discuss the SDT concept of needs as it relates to previous need theories, emphasizing that needs specify the necessary conditions for psychological growth, integrity, and well-being. This concept of needs leads to the hypotheses that different regulatory processes underlying goal pursuits are differentially associated with effective functioning and well-being and also that different goal contents have different relations to the quality of behavior and mental health, specifically because different regulatory processes and different goal contents are associated with differing degrees of need satisfaction. Social contexts and individual differences that support satisfaction of the basic needs facilitate natural growth processes including intrinsically motivated behavior and integration of extrinsic motivations, whereas those that forestall autonomy, competence, or relatedness are associated with poorer motivation, performance, and well-being. We also discuss the relation of the psychological needs to cultural values, evolutionary processes, and other contemporary motivation theories.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
People everywhere select among multiple alternatives, but are they always making choices? In five studies, we found that people in U.S. American contexts, where the disjoint model of agency is prevalent, are more likely than those in Indian contexts to construe their own and other individuals' behaviors as choices, to construe ongoing behaviors and behaviors recalled from memory as choices, to construe naturally occurring and experimentally controlled behaviors as choices, to construe mundane and important actions as choices, and to construe personal and interpersonal actions as choices. Indians showed a greater tendency to construe actions as choices when these actions involved responding to other people than when they did not. These findings show that whether people construe actions as choices is significantly shaped by sociocultural systems of meanings and practices. Together, they suggest that the positive consequences associated with maximizing the availability of personal choice may not be universal and instead may be limited to North American contexts.
Core theories in economics,psychology,and marketing suggest that decision makers benefit from having more choice. In contrast, according to the too-much-choice effect,having too many options to choose from may ultimately decrease the motivation to choose and the satisfaction with the chosen option. To reconcile these two positions,we tested whether there are specific conditions in which the too-much-choice effect is more or less likely to occur. In three studies with a total of 598 participants,we systematically investi- gated the moderating impact of choice set sizes,option attractive- ness,and whether participants had to justify their choices. We also tested the moderating role of search behavior,domain-specific expertise,and participants' tendency to maximize,in a within-subject design. Overall,only choice justification proved to be an effective moderator,calling the extent of the too-much-choice effect into ques- tion. We provide a theoretical account for our findings and discuss possible pathways for future research. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals,Inc.