![]() Q: How has the pandemic affected our ability to make decisions? Or, if they do pull the trigger, they are less satisfied, because it’s so easy to imagine that some alternative that they didn’t choose would have been better than the one they did. When you overwhelm people with options, instead of liberating them, you paralyze them. ![]() If you really went on your shopping trip with the aim of getting the best of everything, you’d either die of starvation before you finished or die of fatigue. Imagine that when you go to the supermarket, not only do you have to choose among 200 kinds of cereal, but you have to choose among 150 kinds of crackers, 300 kinds of soup, 47 kinds of toothpaste, etc. So, if choice is good, then more must be better. That’s part of what it means to be an American. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. He spoke with KHN’s Jenny Gold about the decision fatigue that so many Americans are feeling two years into the pandemic, and how we can cope. Schwartz, an emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and a visiting professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, has been studying the interactions among psychology, morality, and economics for 50 years. But too many choices can leave us feeling paralyzed and less satisfied with our decisions in the long run.įaced with a stream of difficult choices about health and safety during a global pandemic, Schwartz suggests, we may experience a unique kind of burnout that could deeply affect our brains and our mental health. In 2004, psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote an influential book, “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.” The basic premise is this: Whether picking your favorite ice cream or a new pair of sneakers or a family physician, choice can be a wonderful thing. ![]() So it might help to know (as you’re tossing and turning over whether to cancel your non-refundable vacation) that your struggle has a name: decision fatigue. ![]() Questions that once felt trivial have come to bear the moral weight of a life-or-death choice. Should I travel to see an elderly relative? Can I see my friends and, if so, is inside OK? Mask or no mask? Test or no test? What day? Which brand? Is it safe to send my child to day care? This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. ![]()
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