A nice (year-old) review of "The Paradox of Choice":
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?040301crbo_books
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Can you have too many choices?
by CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL
Issue of 2004-03-01
Posted 2004-02-23
A radio producer in Washington, D.C., got a promotion a few years ago
on the grounds that he was a "good decision maker." Self-deprecating
to a fault, he reminded his bosses that many of the decisions he'd
made since joining the station hadn't exactly worked out. They didn't
care. "Being a good decision-maker means you're good at making
decisions," one executive cheerily told him. "It doesn't mean you make
good decisions."
This boss figured that the station had less to fear from periodic
screwups than from the day-in, day-out paralysis of someone too cowed
by choice to choose at all. He had a point. A few decades of research
has made it clear that most people are terrible choosers -- they don't
know what they want, and the prospect of deciding often causes not
just jitters but something like anguish.
...
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