What Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice can teach us about MoviePass
Barry Schwartz's landmark book explains why we can be paralyzed by an overload of options.
❝ ...the "paradox of choice" is a real thing. Coined by Barry Schwartz in his book by the same title, the phrase refers to why we can be paralyzed by an overload of options, and why sometimes, less is more.
If you've ever stood in a cereal aisle for 20 minutes trying to decide what to buy, you're well aware of this phenomenon. In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper conducted an experiment, where they had a group of shoppers sample 24 different types of jam, and then on another day, gave a different group of shoppers only 6 samples of jam. While the big display table with 24 jams generated more interest, the smaller table of 6 samples spurred more sales, suggesting that having a ton of choices made people less likely to actually decide on something.
I'd imagine it's the same reason I spend an hour trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix, and by the time I've decided, I don't have time to watch anything. Or, with MoviePass, I feel so pressured to see every movie out there that sometimes, I don't see anything at all. [Refinery29.com]
| BARRY SCHWARTZ is a Lecturer at UC Berkely's Haas School of Business, author of Practical Wisdom and one of TED’s most popular speakers. Watch him give a TED Talk on why "The Way We Think about Work is Broken," and learn more about booking Barryfor your next event today. |
