What It Takes to Make Good Decisions: Judgment, Not Calculation
The real work in deciding is not in the calculation, but all the thinking that surrounds it.
Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz is emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. He was also a visiting professor at Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley. He is the author of The Paradox of Choice, Why We Work, Practical Wisdom (with Kenneth Sharpe), and, most recently, Choose Wisely (with Richard Schuldenfrei).
Why Rational Choice Theory Should Not Be the Standard for Good Decisions
A half century of research on how people make decisions has shown that rational choice theory fails to describe how people do choose. Nevertheless, it has remained at the center of things, as the normative answer to questions about how people should choose.
A Day in the Life
The theory that underpins much of decision-making science falls short as a way to think about how we actually make decisions and how decisions should be made.
‘Radical Uncertainty’ and Trump’s On-again, Off-again Tariffs
Few of us relish uncertainty, but we can tolerate it if we at least know the odds.
Social Science, Ideology, Culture, & History
Social science gives us ideas about human nature. What does it mean for the science when those ideas don’t just describe our nature, but shape it?
Psychology’s Increased Rigor Is Good News. But Is It Only Good News?
We should have greater confidence than before that findings we read about in journals will replicate. What’s good about this is evident. But do we pay a price for increased rigor?
Is Having Too Many Choices (Versus Too Few) Really the Greater Problem for Consumers?
A new study featuring more than 7,000 participants from six countries found that choice deprivation—a feeling of not having enough to choose from—not choice overload is the most common consumer experience.
How Practical Wisdom Helps Us Cope with Radical Uncertainty
As the world begins to open back up in fits and starts, we are, more than ever, longing for certainty. But certainty is likely a long way off. In the meantime, we should turn to practical wisdom to guide us.
Secondhand Smoke, Moral Sanctions, and How We Should Respond to COVID-19
We are reluctant to tell people how to live their lives, except insofar as individual decisions affect the lives of others. We can learn a valuable lesson for the present moment from the examples of smoking and drunk driving.
Do College Admissions by Lottery
It is the fate of thousands of teenagers applying to dozens of selective institutions that they will not get what they deserve.