A Thousand Times No

 

 InTheNo 2: Psychologist Barry Schwartz [56:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What if nobody ever turned you down, leaving every possible option available to you? Psychology professor Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, explains how being asked to choose from an overabundance of options can actually lead to feelings of dissatisfaction and helplessness, rather than greater contentment. We talk about everything from jeans to jam, gourmet appliances to dog food, job hunting to retirement planning.

We also touch on the work of several notable scholars, including:

• Barry Schwartz, Swarthmore College,
  The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (2004)
• Sheena Iyengar, Columbia University
• Hazel Rose Markus, Stanford University
• Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University, and the late Amos Tversky, Stanford University
• Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, University of Chicago,
  “Libertarian Paternalism is not an Oxymoron” (HTML) (PDF)

The choice is simple: Listen in!

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