Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist who is the author of famous bestselling books such as The Paradox of Choice and Psychology of Learning and Behavior. He writes articles for academic journals such as Harvard Business Review. This entire article is about rethinking/ contesting conventional wisdom and his academic intelligence adds more weight to his argument.
Schwartz firstly contests conventional wisdom by using a case study performed by psychologists Iyengar and Lepper about jams. While a larger display with more options did draw in a lot of customers, the likelihood of them purchasing jams was higher in a smaller display. He further strengthened his argument by providing a range of evidence varying from trivial things such as snacks soft drinks beers etc to things as significant as job opportunities retirement investment plans etc. He says that by providing a wider range sales volume might increase but the satisfaction a consumer is likely to get from purchasing a commodity decreases, leading to the problem of choice paralysis.
Initially, Schwartz tells us why more isn’t always better, in the first few paragraphs he builds up his argument by giving us various examples ranging from ice creams to jobs, and tells us how too many choices can confuse customers and thus reduce their satisfaction. He uses strong theoretical terms such as the law of diminishing marginal utility and choice paralysis to further strengthen his argument. In the latter half, Schwartz refutes certain counterarguments, he starts by telling us that choice is good for us but at the same time
By Barry Schwartz (analysed)
