Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, selecting a long-distance carrier, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions--from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs--have become increasingly complex due to the over- whelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of choice overload: it can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains why too much of a good thing has proven detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. Synthesizing current research in the social sciences, he makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives...

Prologue.  The Paradox of Choice: A Road Map

      PART I WHEN WE CHOOSE

Chapter 1. Let's Go Shopping

Chapter 2. New Choices

       PART II HOW WE CHOOSE

Chapter 3. Deciding and Choosing

Chapter 4.  When Only the Best Will Do

       PART III WHY WE SUFFER

Chapter 5. Choice and Happiness

Chapter 6. Missed Opportunities

Chapter 7. "If Only...": The Problem of Regret

Chapter 8. Why Decisions Disappoint:

       The Problem of Adaptation

Chapter 9. Why Everything Suffers from Comparison

Chapter 10. Whose Fault Is It? Choice,

       Disappointment, and Depression

       PART IV | WHAT WE CAN DO

Chapter 11. What to Do About Choice

          Notes

          Index