The Choices Worth Having

Barry Schwartz

June, 2009

The “Official Syllogism”

• More freedom means more well being

• More choice means more freedom• More choice means more well

being

Consumer Choice

Health care:

“Patient autonomy”

Direct marketing of drugs

Work

Liberal arts curriculum

Close relationships

Identity

Is this good news or bad news?

YES!

What Too Much Choice Does: Paralysis

• Buying jam

• 401(k) investing

What Too Much Choice Does: Satisfaction

• Regret and anticipated regret

• Opportunity costs

Offer participants $2 or a good pen:

75% choose pen

Offer participants $2, or 1 good pen, or 2 cheaper pens:

45% choose either pen

Everything Suffers from Comparison

Opportunity Costs and College Graduates

From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet, and another fig was a brilliant professor…and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America…and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

—Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

What Too Much Choice Does: Satisfaction

• Regret and anticipated regret

• Opportunity costs

• Escalation of expectations

What Too Much Choice Does: Satisfaction

• Regret and anticipated regret

• Opportunity costs

• Escalation of expectations

• Self blame

Maximizing and Satisficing

Correlates of Maximization

NegativeHappiness

Optimism

Satisfaction with life

Self esteem

PositiveRegret

Perfectionism

Depression

Career Decisions of College Seniors(Iyengar, Wells, & Schwartz, Psych Science, 2006)

1. Difficulty of decision

2. How they did

3. How they felt

Maximizers

• Consider more jobs

• Want more options

• Get $7K more in starting salary

Maximizers are...More:

PessimisticAnxiousStressedWorriedTiredOverwhelmedDepressedRegretfulDisappointed

Less:ContentOptimisticElatedExcitedHappy

How Choice Can Be Good and Bad

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Number of Choices

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Number of Choices

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Number of Choices

The Choices Worth Having

Practical Wisdom and the Remoralization of Professional

Life

Plan of Discussion

• Why we can’t do without virtue• Practical wisdom is the key

virtue• Nonetheless, we’re waging a

war on wisdom• But there are sources of hope

Hospital Janitor:

Characteristic Duties

Shampoo Carpet

Clean Upholstery

Operate Cleaning Equipment

Strip and Wax Floors

Sweep, Salt, or Shovel Entrance

Clean Grounds and Area

Unplug Commodes, Urinals, and Drains

Mop

Dispose of Soiled Linen

Vacuum

Clean and Wax Furniture

Clean Windows and Mirrors

Clean Toilets

Stock Restrooms

Dust Blinds

Clean Bedside Equipment

Make Beds

Collect Waste

Replace Light Bulbs

Rearrange Furniture

Practical Wisdom: Moral Skill Plus Moral Will

A Wise Person

• Knows when and how to make the exception to every rule

• Knows when and how to improvise: Wisdom is “moral jazz.”

• Knows to use these moral skills in pursuit of the right aims

• Is made and not born

Rules and the War on Moral Skill

• “Lemonade”

• Scripted, lock-step curricula

Script for Day 53

Reading and enjoying literature/words with “b”

“The Bath”

Assemble students on the rug or reading area...Give students a warning about the dangers ofhot water...Say, “Listen very quietly as I read the story.”...Say, “Think of other pictures that make the same sound as the sound bath begins with.”...

TITLE:

TEXT:

LECTURE:

Rules and the War on Moral Skill

• Judge Forer and mandatory, minimum sentences

• Doctors and “patient autonomy”

Incentives and the War on Moral Will

• Day care in Israel

• Nuclear waste dumps in Switzerland

Incentives and the War on Moral Will

• Teaching kids on the “bubble”

• Our current financial crisis

“We must ask, not just is it profitable, but is it right.”

—Barack Obama (12.18.08)

Remoralizing Work

Meaning and Engagement in Work:

“Jobs,” “Careers,” and “Callings”(Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, Journal of Research in

Personality, 1997)

Job

• Work for pay• Necessity of life• Would stop in a minute• Would do something else if given a chance• Anticipates weekends• Eager to retire• Wouldn’t encourage friends or kids

Career

• Enjoys work• Expects to move on to something

better• Goals for future trajectory• Can’t wait to get a promotion

Calling• Work is one of the most important parts of life• Pleased to be in this line of work • Work is a vital part of identity• Takes work home and on vacations • Friends are from the workplace• Belongs to several organizations and clubs relating to the

work • Work makes the world a better place• Encourage friends and children to do this work• Not particularly looking forward to retirement

What Job Orientation Affects

• Job performance

• Job satisfaction

• Life satisfaction

• Physical health

What Creating a “Calling” Requires

• A sense of organizational purpose

• A sense of partnership

• A large degree of discretion and autonomy

How to Remoralize Work

• Make work a calling

• Celebrate moral exemplars

• Embody wisdom in everyday practices

• Nurture wisdom in the people you supervise

What Really Makes People Happy

Love and Work (Freud)

What Positive Psychology Tells Us to Do

• Identify “signature strengths”• Develop them• The more developed they are, the

better

Aristotle’s View

• You need all the virtues

• More is not always better than less: the “mean”

The “Mean” between…

• Prudence and bravery

• Loyalty and authenticity

• Leadership and humility

• Open-mindedness and loyalty

• Honesty and kindness

Aristotle’s View

• You need all the virtues

• More is not always better than less: the “mean”

• Practical wisdom is the “master virtue”

Why You Need Practical Wisdom

• Relevance

• Conflict

• Specificity

“One can not love humanity;

one can only love people.”

—Graham Greene

Two Key Things about Love and Work

• Both require choice (these are the choices worth having)

• Both constrain choice