the art of choosing sheena iyengar

Every day we make choices. Coke or Pepsi? Save or spend? Stay or go? Whether mundane or lifealtering, these choices define us and shape our lives. Sheena Iyengar asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengars awardwinning research reveals that the answers are surprising and profound. In our world of shifting political and cultural forces, technological revolution, and interconnected commerce, our decisions have farreaching consequences. Use THE ART OF CHOOSING as your companion and guide for the many challenges ahead.

[...]... But of the dogs that had not been able to end the shocks, two-thirds lay passively on the floor and suffered The shocks continued, and although the dogs whined, they made no attempt to free themselves Even when they saw other dogs jumping the wall, and even after researchers dragged them to the other side of the box to show them that the shocks were escapable, the dogs still gave up and endured the. .. than when they made it on their own—because their relationships with their mothers represented a large part of their identities Letting their mothers choose the anagrams didn’t threaten their sense of control because their mothers’ preferences were such an important factor in determining their own preferences: They were practically one and the same In contrast, the Anglo American children saw themselves... nations), for the economic benefits of distributing labor among the two people and their children, and to ensure the continuity of one’s bloodline and of one’s way of life In other words, the union was based on shared goals The spouses were bound by duties not only to each other but also to the rest of their kin The notion of familial duty could be so strong as to extend even beyond life; the book of Deuteronomy... pressing the side panels with its head, while the other could not turn it off, no matter how it writhed The shocks were synchronized, starting at the same moment for each dog in the pair, and ending for both when the dog with the ability to deactivate pressed the side panel Thus, the amount of shock was identical for the pair, but one dog experienced the pain as controllable, while the other did not The. .. to lack of control, often the devil is indeed in the details Is there any hope, then, for those who can’t or choose not to climb the corporate ladder? The Whitehall Studies, though disturbing, suggest there is What affected people’s health most in these studies wasn’t the actual level of control that people had in their jobs, but the amount of control they perceived themselves as having True, the lower-ranked... there are some who would say they are happy and others who would say they are not They might even use similar language to describe their feelings and experiences, but their definitions of happiness and the criteria by which they judge the success of their marriages are based on the scripts they were handed by their parents and culture In arranged partnerships, marital bliss is primarily gauged by the. .. heroine should fight for the triumph of their own hearts’ desire, and the tale ends when their choice prevails: on the day of their wedding The focus is on who makes the choice and how the choice is made We’re not told how the two get to “happily ever after,” just that it happens— everything will work out because Cinderella and the prince chose each other out of love The tale of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah... the options on the screen The second group of students saw one set of options highlighted, and a message on the screen told them they would be assigned these choices because these had been most popular in their class poll The final group of students again saw preselected options, but this time the message said they had been chosen by a poll of the third-graders at another school As in the previous study,... Japanese participants performed this task, as part of a study by psychologists Richard Nisbett and Takahiko Masuda, the Americans paid more attention to the large fish, the “main characters” of the scene, while the Japanese described the scene more holistically Their varying descriptions were indicative of other differences in perception, particularly of who they believed to be the powerful agents From the. .. stir the heart and lubricate the eyes The idea of love marriage went hand in hand with the rise of individualism in Western society: The Book of Common Prayer was itself a product of the English Reformation It contained the prayers for various common religious services, including the core wedding vows, written in English for the first time, representing the break from the Catholic Church in Rome and the . although the dogs whined, they made no attempt to free themselves. Even when they saw other dogs jumping the wall, and even after researchers dragged them to the other side of the box to show them. sat on the right side with the women, while the men clustered on the left. In accordance with the articles of the Sikh faith, I kept my hair long and uncut, a symbol of the perfection of God’s. want.” Despite the differences in these messages, the staff treated the residents of the two floors identically, giving them the same amount of attention. Moreover, the additional choices given to the second