refers to as hedonic lag R.E. Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000). The quote is from p. 131.
Searchable Terms
A
Academy Award predictions
accident victims
accounting, psychological
adaptation anticipation of changed reference points and choice problem and description of hedonic mispredicting satisfaction and mitigating effects of perceptual
addiction
adolescent-parent power struggles
advertising
air-conditioning
alcohol
Allina, Amy
alternative medicine
American Paradox, The (Myers)
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Amish
anchoring
anorexia nervosa
anticipated regret
anxiety
AT&T
“attractiveness score,”
attributional style
automobiles
autonomy choice as essential for limits to psychological well-being and psychology and ecology of social ties and value of
availability heuristic
B
babies, of unmarried parents
Berlin, Isaiah
blame, for making bad choices
Blue Cross
Bowling Alone (Putnam)
brain
brand loyalty
“branding,”
Brickman, Philip
bulimia
Bush, George W.
“buyer’s remorse,”
C
cable television
California
Campbell, Donald
Camus, Albert
Canada
cancer treatment choice and
career-related choices see also employment
casual dress
catalogs, mail-order
CBS News
CD players
Chast, Roz
child-custody case
children deciding to have decision making by opportunity costs and
choice without boundaries difficulty of as essential for autonomy existential how we choose human progress and increased stakes and justification and mitigating adverse consequences of negative aspects of overload of point of selectivity in exercising of
choosers, definition of
Choosing the Right Pond (Frank)
cigarette advertising
CNN
cohabitation
colleges career choice and choice of curriculum at rate of attendance at subjective fit and tenure of professors at
colonoscopy exams
commandments, religious, viewed as suggestions
commitment: marriage and social relations and
comparison high expectations and prospect theory and types of see also social comparison
comparison shopping anchoring and
competition positional
consciousness, extraneous information filtered by
constraints, learning to love
Consumer Reports,
Consumers Union
contrast effects
control
core curriculum
cosmetic surgery
cost accounting
counterfactuals definition of upward vs. downward
Cullum, Leo
“curse of discernment,”
D
death, most common causes of
decision-making anchoring and availability heuristic and avoidance of by children emotional pressure and evaluating information and framing and gathering information for goals and maximizing and quality and prospect theory and and quality and quantity of information reversibility and second-order decisions steps in see also risk, risk assessment
default settings
“defined benefits” vs. “defined contribution” pension plans
depression attributional style and epidemic of individualism and learned helplessness and maximizing and social cost of symptoms of
deregulation, of utilities
Development as Freedom (Sen)
diets
diminishing marginal utility, law of
discounts vs. surcharges
divorce
domain specificity
“dress down” wardrobe
durable goods
E
eating disorders
Eckersley, Richard
education, positional competition and
egocentrism
Ehrenreich, Barbara
elections, U.S., of 2000, 26
electricity service
electronic gadgets
employment at home mobility in wardrobe and
endowment effect
Epstein, Benita
error, susceptibility to
evolution
existential choice
exit
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (Hirschman)
expectations: control of high raised rising see also prospect theory
expected utility
experience, diversity of
experienced utility
expressive value, of choice
F
family
“fear of falling,”
feelings, memories and predictions of
framing comparison and definition of prospect theory and psychological accounting and reference prices and risk assessment and
France
Frank, Robert
freedom
“freedom from” and “freedom to,” self-respect and, see also autonomy
friendship
G
gains, see risk, risk assessment
Gallup polls
Gawande, Atul
Gawande, Hunter
Germany
goal-setting
God, belief in
“good enough,” see satisficers
Gore, Al
gratitude
Great Britain
grocery shopping
gross domestic product
guarantees, money-back
H
habits
happiness autonomy and choice and decline in maximizing as obstacle to measurements and surveys of social comparison and social relations and status and wealth and see also satisfaction
Harris, Lou
Harvard University
health care
health insurance
heart disease
hedonic adaptation
hedonic lag
helplessness, learned
heuristic, definition of
high expectations, curse of
Hirsch, Fred
Hirschman, Albert
HMOs
human progress
Hungary
hypertension
I
Iceland
identity, choice of
illness
immune system
inaction inertia
income per capita
individualism
infants
“infomercial,”
information: evaluations of filtered by consciousness gathering of quality and quantity of
information costs
instrumental value, of choice
Internet medical misinformation on
interviews, effect of
J
jams, of choice
Japan
jeans, selection of
job mobility
Johnson, Paul
Joyless Economy, The (Scitovsky)
justification, of choices
K
Kahneman, Daniel
Kaiser Permanente
Kaminer, Wendy
Katz, Jay
L
Landman, Janet
Lane, Robert
learned helplessness
liberty, negative vs. positive
liking, wanting and
loss aversion
Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, The (Lane)
losses. See risk, risk assessment
lotteries
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
M
mail-order catalogs
marketplace: competition in exit as response in
marriage: age and choices related to cohabitation without commitment and individual autonomy and as prediction reversibility and spouses’ separate perceptions of vows of
maximizers adaptation and choice as cause of choice overload and counterfactuals and and decision quality depression and description of diagnostic survey on dissatisfaction as lot of gender and high expectations and Maximization Scale perfectionists and regret and satisficing as selected areas of maximizing by social comparison and status and trade-offs and
medical care
Medicare
memory see also salience
Michalos, Alex
Microsoft
Miller, Warren
missed opportunities. See trade-offs
money-back guarantees Moral Freedom (Wolfe)
movies, product placement in
Myers, David
N
National Women’s Health Network
nearness effect, regret and
needs, universal
negative emotions, decision-making affected by
negative liberty
New York
New York, N.Y.
New York Times,
New Yorker,
Nobel laureates
noise experiment
nondurable goods
nonreversible decisions
nontraditional medicines
Norway
novelty
O
objective results, subjective experiences and
Olympic medalists, bronze vs. silver,
omission bias
opportunity costs accounting of definition of effects of
opportunity costs of reversible decisions and
optimists
P
parent-adolescent power struggles
Paris
patient responsibility, in medical care decisions
“peak-end” rule
Penn State University
perceptual adaptation
perfectionism
pessimists
Philadelphia, Pa.
pickers, definition of
“picture-in-picture” TVs
“picture-in-picture” TVs
Plato
pleasure thermometer
Poland
polls. See surveys
Porter, Roy
positional competition
positional goods
positive liberty
postdecision regret
posters
PPOs
prescription drugs
presumptions
Prilosec
Princeton University
prison population
product placement, in movies
prospect theory comparisons and description of endowment effect and neutral point and sunk costs and
psychological accounting
public television, ads on
Putnam, Robert
Q
Quarterlife Crisis
R
racial identification
RAND Corporation
Real Simple,
reasoning, satisfaction and
reference prices
regret anticipated aversion of counterfactuals and effects of maximizing and mitigation of near misses and omission bias and postdecision Regret Scale responsibility and satisfaction and sunk costs and upside to see also trade-offs
Regret (Landman)
religion
remembered utility
responsibility, regret and
restaurants
retirement plans
reversible decisions
risk, risk assessment: loss and gain preferences and and most frequent causes of death prospect theory and see also decision-making
risk aversion risk seeking
romantic relationships, reasoning and
routines
rules, as means of eliminating choice
“rules of the game,”
S
salience definition of omission bias and perception and
satisfaction: misprediction of reasoning and regret and “three gap” assessment and see also happiness satisfaction treadmill
Satisfaction with Life Scale
satisficers definition of as maximizers maximizers compared with social comparison and trade-offs and
scarcity
Scitovsky, Tibor
Seabrook, John
second-order decisions
security, primary importance of
self-blame
self-determination
self-esteem, in comparison with others
self-respect, freedom and
Seligman, Martin
Sen, Amartya
shopping: comparison framing and reference prices and by maximizers by satisficers time vs. pleasure and
Silent World of Doctor and Patient, The (Katz)
Simon, Herbert
simplicity
Sipress, David
sitcoms, decreasing length of
Smaller, Barbara
Smeloff, Edward A.
Smith, Adam
snacks, experiment in choosing
social comparison choice options and as curse curtailing of happiness and maximizing and satisficing and positional competition status and
social interaction, in information gathering
Social Limits to Growth (Hirsch)
social mobility
social relations: commitment and happiness and time and
specialists, referrals to
sports stadiums, corporate naming of
standard of living
standards
Stanford University
status: maximizing and
social comparison and
Steiner, Peter
stress
subjective experiences, objective results and
Subjective Happiness Scale
subjective well-being
Sugarman, Susan
suicide
sunk costs
Sunstein, Cass
supermarkets, product choice in
surcharges vs. discounts
surgery, cosmetic
surveys: on choosing cancer treatment on control vs. simplification on feelings of helplessness on happiness on religion
Swarthmore, Pa.
Swarthmore College
T
teenagers: high expectations and suicide rates of
telecommunications revolution
telephone service
television
tenure
Thaler, Richard
time, social relations and
TiVo
“too-muchness,”
trade-offs avoiding decisions and emotional cost of necessity of opportunity costs and psychology of satisficers and maximizers and
Tversky, Amos
Twitchell, James
“tyranny of small decisions,”
U
Uexkull, Jacob von
Ullmann-Margalit, Edna
UNICEF
United States: in comparisons of happiness, increased standard of living in
unit pricing
universal needs
universities. See colleges
USA Today
U.S. News & World Report
utilities, deregulation and choice and
utility, types of
V
vacation destinations
value: expressive instrumental
Vietnam War
violent crime rate
voice
“voluntary simplicity” movement
voting
W
wanting, liking and
wardrobe, casual
wealth: happiness and security as more important than
Weber, Robert
Weber, Robert
“When Choice Is Demotivating,”
Wolfe, Alan
women: depression and eating disorders and medical care choice and
Woods, Tiger
Y
Yankelovich Partners
Z
Zeigler, Jack
Permissions
Pp. 80–81. The Maximization Scale is adapted from “Maximizing versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice” by B. Schwartz, A. Ward, J. Monterosso, S. Lyubomirsky, K. White, and D. R. Lehman, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, 83, 1178–1197. Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
P. 87. The Regret Scale is adapted from “Maximizing versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice” by B. Schwartz, A. Ward, J. Monterosso, S. Lyubomirsky, K. White, and D. R. Lehman, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, 83, 1178–1197. Copyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
P. 105. The Satisfaction with Life Scale: E. Diener, R. A. Emmons, R. J. Larson, and S. Griffin. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1985, 49, 71–75. Reprinted with permission from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
P. 196. The Subjective Happiness Scale. S. Lyubomirsky and H. S. Lepper, “A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation. Social Indicators Research, 1999, 46, 137–155. Reprinted with kind permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers.
P.S. Ideas, interviews, & features included in a new section…
The Paradox of Choice
by Barry Schwartz
About the author
Meet the Author
About the book
Q&A with Barry Schwartz
Read on
Further Reading
About the author
Meet the Author
Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. Since the publication of The Paradox of Choice, he has written about choice overload for Scientific American, the New York Times, Parade magazine, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Times (London), Higher Education Supplement, Advertising Age, USA Today, the Guardian, and the Royal Society of the Arts. Schwartz has been interviewed for television programs, radio shows, and magazines throughout the United States, as well as in England, Ireland, Canada, Germany, and Brazil.
He has also consulted on the problem of choice overload with such diverse organizations and companies as Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports), Intuit, American Express, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Schwartz is the author of several other books, among them The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life and The Costs of Living: How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life. His articles have appeared in many of the leading journals in his field, including American Psychologist.
The Paradox of Choice Page 23