We are sculptors finding ourselves in the evolution of choosing, not in the results of choice. Sheena Iyengar More Quotes by Sheena Iyengar More Quotes From Sheena Iyengar In reality, many choices are between things that are not that much different. The value of choice depends on our ability to perceive differences between the options. Sheena Iyengar differenceschoicesreality We are often in society told to make decisions in one of two ways. We're either told "Use your gut, just go with how you feel about it and let that guide you," or we're told to use reason - some very deliberative methodical process of pros and cons and really thinking it through. Sheena Iyengar decisiontwothinking If you have the feeling of choice, if you feel free, you will be better off. And when I say better off I mean that if people feel they have control over their lives, they call in for fewer sick days from work. They have a lesser probability of having a heart attack or stroke. They live longer. They're happier. Sheena Iyengar heartmeanpeople The expansion of choice has become an explosion of choice. Sheena Iyengar explosionsexpansionchoices Life hands us a lot of hard choices, and other people can help us more than we might realize. We often think we should make important decisions using just our own internal resources. What are the pros and cons? What does my gut tell me? But often we have friends and family who know us in ways we don't know ourselves. Sheena Iyengar handspeoplethinking The less control people had over their work, the higher their blood pressure during work hours. Moreover, blood pressure at home was unrelated to the level of job control, indicating that the spike during work hours was specifically caused by lack of choice on the job. People with little control over their work also experienced more back pain, missed more days of work due to illness in general, and had higher rates of mental illness-the human equivalent of stereotypies, resulting in the decreased quality of life common to animals reared in captivity. Sheena Iyengar painhomejobs When people are given a moderate number of options (4 to 6) rather than a large number (20 to 30), they are more likely to make a choice, are more confident in their decisions, and are happier with what they choose. Sheena Iyengar choicesnumberspeople So gut tells you "How do I feel about this right now?" It doesn't tell me how I feel about it tomorrow or even a few minutes from now. It just tells me how I'm feeling right now. Sheena Iyengar minutestomorrowfeelings They [people] start asking themselves "Well which one is the best? Which one would be good for me?" And all those questions are much easier to ask if you're choosing from six than when you're choosing from 24 and if you look at the marketplace today most often we have a lot more than 24 of things to choose from. Sheena Iyengar sixtodaypeople As we get older, we get better at choosing in ways that will make us happy. We do a better job at picking activities that make us happy, and at spending time with people who make us happy. We're also better at letting things go. Sheena Iyengar get-betterjobspeople Most of the time you should use reason, there is no doubt about that because gut often makes us susceptible to lots of different biases, particularly if what you're deciding is something that you really, that expertise can be brought to bear on it, there is a way in which you can align the odds, so then you should really use reason. Sheena Iyengar differentoddsdoubt Consumers presented with six choices on an item were twice as likely to buy as consumers overwhelmed with 24 varieties of the same item. Sheena Iyengar overwhelmedsixchoices In fact, even in that store Draeger's they had 348 different kinds of jam actually in the jam aisle. And what we found over about, say, 10 years of research is that as the number of choices actually increase people are less likely to make a choice and sometimes they do this even when it's really bad for them. Sheena Iyengar numberspeopleyears The quality of health care continues to improve, and people are living longer, but these developments mean that we're likely to eventually find ourselves in a situation in which we're forced to make difficult choices about our parents, other loved ones, or even ourselves that ultimately boil down to calculations of worth and value. Sheena Iyengar difficult-choicesmeanpeople A person of “good character” was one who acted in accordance with the expectations of his community Sheena Iyengar communityexpectationscharacter Too many choices can overwhelm us and cause us to not choose at all. For businesses, this means that if they offer us too many choices, we may not buy anything. Sheena Iyengar choicesmaymean Like, people are less likely to invest in their retirement when they have more options in their 401K plans than when they have fewer. Sheena Iyengar plansretirementpeople One could even argue that we have a duty to create and pass on stories about choice because once a person knows such stories, they can't be taken away from him. He may lose his possessions, his home, his loved ones, but if he holds on to a story about choice, he retains the ability to practice choice. Sheena Iyengar takenpracticehome We're born with the desire, but we don't really know how to choose. We don't know what our taste is, and we don't know what we are seeing. Sheena Iyengar borntastedesire We make choices and are in turn made by them. Sheena Iyengar turnschoicesmade
