The Paradox of Choice Page 22

  But bad results make T. Gilovich and V.H. Medvec, “The Temporal Pattern to the Experience of Regret,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994, 67, 357–365; and M. Zeelenberg, W.W. van Dijk, and A.S.R. Manstead, “Reconsidering the Relation Between Regret and Responsibility,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1998, 74, 254–272.

  Thinking about the world as it isn’t See N.J. Roese, “Counterfactual Thinking,” Psychological Bulletin, 1997, 21, 133–148.

  may not be able to arrest For evidence in support of a relation between regret and depression, see L. Lecci, M.A. Okun, and P. Karoly, “Life Regrets and Current Goals as Predictors of Psychological Adjustment,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994, 66, 731–741.

  There is an important On upward and downward counterfactuals, see N.J. Roese, “Counterfactual Thinking,” Psychological Bulletin, 1997, 21, 133–148.

  But another reason for M. Zeelenberg and J. Beattie, “Consequences of Regret Aversion 2: Additional Evidence for Effects of Feedback on Decision Making,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1997, 72, 63–78. There are other studies reporting similar results. See M. Zeelenberg, J. Beattie, J. van der Pligt, and N.K. de Vries, “Consequences of Regret Aversion: Effects of Feedback on Risky Decision Making,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1996, 65, 148–158; I. Ritov, “Probability of Regret: Anticipation of Uncertainty Resolution in Choice,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1996, 66, 228–236; and R.P. Larrick and T.L. Boles, “Avoiding Regret in Decisions with Feedback: A Negotiation Example,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1995, 63, 87–97.

  what is called inaction inertia O.E. Tykocinski and T.S. Pittman, “The Consequences of Doing Nothing: Inaction Inertia as Avoidance of Anticipated Counterfactual Regret, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998, 75, 607–616.

  what are called sunk costs H.R. Arkes and C. Blumer, “The Psychology of Sunk Cost,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1985, 35, 124–140.

  of the business or of the player On basketball players, see B.M. Staw and H. Hoang, “Sunk Costs in the NBA: Why Draft Order Affects Playing Time and Survival in Professional Basketball,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 1995, 40, 474–493. For business expansion, see A.M. McCarthy, F.D. Schoorman, and A.C. Cooper, “Reinvestment Decisions by Entrepreneurs: Rational Decision-Making or Escalation of Commitment?” Decision Sciences, 1993, 8, 9–24.

  why did the United States B.M. Staw, “Knee Deep in the Big Muddy: A Study of Escalating Commitment to a Chosen Course of Action,” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1976, 16, 27–44.

  sums it up this way J. Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 184.) For more on this point, see also I. Janis and L. Mann, Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and Commitment (New York: Free Press, 1977), pp. 219–242; and D. Bell, “Regret in Decision Making Under Uncertainty,” Operations Research, 1982, 30, 961–981.

  And to acknowledge the fact My discussion of the benefits of regret borrows substantially from J. Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

  Chapter 8

  In 1973 The data about car air conditioners are in D.G. Myers, The American Paradox (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).

  Hedonic adaption can be For a discussion of the two different types of adaptation, and of adaptation in general, see S. Frederick and G. Loewenstein, “Hedonic Adaptation,” in D. Kahneman, E. Diener, and N. Schwarz (eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (New York: Russell Sage, 1999), pp. 302–329. Two of the classic theoretical accounts of adaptation are H. Helson, Adaptation-Level Theory: An Experimental and Systematic Approach to Behavior (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), and A. Parducci, Happiness, Pleasure, and Judgment: The Contextual Theory and Its Applications (Hove, England: Erlbaum, 1995).

  In what is perhaps P. Brickman, D. Coates, and R. Janoff-Bulman, “Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1978, 36, 917–927.

  Twenty-five years ago T. Scitovsky, The Joyless Economy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976). For an account of how pleasure becomes comfort, see R. Solomon, “The Opponent Process Theory of Motivation,” American Psychologist, 1980, 35, 691–712.

  disappointment with consumption increases On adaptation and durable goods, see A.O. Hirschman, Shifting Involvements (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982).

  the hedonic treadmill P. Brickman and D. Campbell, “Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society,” in M.H. Appley (ed.), Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium (New York: Academic Press, 1971), pp. 287–302.

  the satisfaction treadmill D. Kahneman, “Objective Happiness,” in D. Kahneman, E. Diener, and N. Schwarz (eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (New York: Russell Sage, 1999), pp. 3–25.

  human beings are remarkably bad For a general review of how inaccurate people are at predicting future feelings, see G. Loewenstein and D. Schkade, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice? Predicting Future Feelings,” in D. Kahneman, E. Diener, and N. Schwarz (eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (New York: Russell Sage, 1999), pp. 85–105.

  college students in the Midwest D. Schkade and D. Kahneman, “Does Living in California Make People Happy? A Focusing Illusion in Judgments of Life Satisfaction,” Psychological Science, 1998, 9, 340–346.

  respondents were asked to predict G. Loewenstein and S. Frederick, “Predicting Reactions to Environmental Change,” in M. Bazerman, D. Messick, A. Tenbrunsel, and K. Wade-Benzoni (eds.), Environment, Ethics, and Behavior (San Francisco: New Lexington Press, 1997), pp. 52–72.

  young college professors D.T. Gilbert, E.C. Pinel, T.D. Wilson, S.J. Blumberg, and T.P. Whatley, “Immune Neglect: A Source of Durability Bias in Affective Forecasting,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998, 75, 617–638.

  Elderly patients suffering On the elderly, see R.A. Pearlman and R.F. Uhlmann, “Quality of Life in Chronic Diseases: Perceptions of Elderly Patients,” Journal of Gerontology, 1988, 43, M25–30. For a discussion of the importance of predicting future feelings, see J. March, “Bounded Rationality, Ambiguity, and the Engineering of Choice,” Bell Journal of Economics, 1978, 9, 587–608.

  experience and express gratitude The person most responsible for recent research on gratitude is psychologist Robert Emmons. See M.E. McCullough, S.D. Kilpatrick, R.A. Emmons, and D.B. Larson, “Is Gratitude a Moral Affect?” Psychological Bulletin, 2001, 127, 249–266; R.A. Emmons and C.A. Crumpler, “Gratitude as a Human Strength: Appraising the Evidence,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2000, 19, 56–69; and R.A. Emmons and M.E. McCullough, “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, 84, 377–389.

  Chapter 9

  Comparisons are R.E. Lane discusses the relative nature of evaluation in The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).

  Michalos found that A. Michalos, “Job Satisfaction, Marital Satisfaction, and the Quality of Life,” in F.M. Andrews (ed.), Research on the Quality of Life (Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, 1986), p. 75.

  What the theory claims The classic paper on framing is D. Kahneman and A. Tversky, “Choices, Values, and Frames,” American Psychologist, 1984, 39, 341–350. Many other examples are collected in D. Kahneman and A. Tversky (eds.), Choices, Values, and Frames (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

  In the fall of 1999 For the poll, see T. Lewin, “It’s a Hard Life (or Not),” New York Times, November 11, 1999, p. A32. On fear of falling, see B. Ehrenreich, Fear of Falling (New York: HarperCollins, 1990).

  anxiety about health R. Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (New York: W
.W. Norton, 1998).

  Social comparison provides Two useful compendia of research on social comparison are B. Buunk and F. Gibbons (eds.), Health, Coping, and Well-Being: Perspectives from Social Comparison Theory (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997); and J.M. Suls and T.A. Willis (eds.), Social Comparison: Contemporary Theory and Research (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1991). In addition to these compendia, see L.G. Aspinwall and S.E. Taylor, “Effects of Social Comparison Direction, Threat, and Self-Esteem on Affect, Self-Evaluation, and Expected Success,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1993, 64, 708–722; F.X. Gibbons and M. Gerrard, “Effects of Upward and Downward Social Comparison on Mood States,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1993, 8, 14–31; S. Lyubomirsky, K.L. Tucker, and F. Kasri, “Responses to Hedonically-Conflicting Social Comparisons: Comparing Happy and Unhappy People,” European Journal of Social Psychology, 2001, 31, 1–25; and S.E. Taylor, “Adjustment to Threatening Events,” American Psychologist, 1983, 38, 1161–1173.

  But it needn’t be this way B.P. Buunk, R.L. Collins, G.A. Dakof, S.E. Taylor, and N.W. Van Yperen, “The Affective Consequences of Social Comparison: Either Direction Has Its Ups and Downs,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1992, 59, 1238–1249.

  big fish in our own ponds R. Frank, Choosing the Right Pond (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). See also his more recent Luxury Fever (New York: Free Press, 1999), in which he argues that much of the modern American taste for excess is driven by social comparison.

  better relative position S.J. Solnick and D. Hemenway, “Is More Always Better? A Survey on Positional Concerns,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1998, 37, 373–383.

  explosion of telecommunications For a discussion of how modern telecommunications as well as advertising has changed the relevant comparison group for most people, see M.L. Richins, “Social Comparison, Advertising, and Consumer Discontent,” American Behavioral Scientist, 1995, 38, 593–607; and S.J. Hoch and G.F. Loewenstein, “Time-Inconsistent Preferences and Consumer Self-Control,” Journal of Consumer Research, 1991, 17, 492–507.

  economist Fred Hirsch F. Hirsch, Social Limits to Growth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).

  crowded football stadium The football stadium analogy comes from T.C. Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978).

  To choose not to run See R.E. Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), Chapter 17, for a discussion of the social welfare implications of social comparison processes.

  developed a questionnaire For the Subjective Happiness Scale, see S. Lyubomirsky and H.S. Lepper, “A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation,” Social Indicators Research, 1999, 46, 137–155. For the studies of social comparison, see S. Lyubomirsky and L. Ross, “Hedonic Consequences of Social Comparison: A Contrast of Happy and Unhappy People,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1997, 73, 1141–1157; S. Lyubomirsky and L. Ross, “Changes in Attractiveness of Elected, Rejected, and Precluded Alternatives: A Comparison of Happy and Unhappy Individuals,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, 76, 988–1007; and S. Lyubomirsky, K.L. Tucker, and F. Kasri, “Responses to Hedonically-Conflicting Social Comparisons: Comparing Happy and Unhappy People,” European Journal of Social Psychology, 2001, 31, 1–25.

  we took participants This research on maximizers and satisficers is described in detail in B. Schwartz, A. Ward, J. Monterosso, S. Lyubomirsky, K. White, and D.R. Lehman, “Maximizing versus Satisficing: When Happiness Is a Matter of Choice,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, 83, 1178–1197.

  Chapter 10

  The American “happiness quotient” See the references in Chapter 5, and for summaries, R.E. Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), and D. Myers, The American Paradox (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).

  prevalence of clinical depression M.E.P. Seligman, Learned Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1975). See also his Learned Optimism: The Skill to Conquer Life’s Obstacles, Large and Small (New York: Random House, 1991), and D.L. Rosenhan and M.E.P. Seligman, Abnormal Psychology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995).

  are significantly depressed The statistics on the consequences of depression are from Lane, p. 329.

  discovery of “learned helplessness” See J.B. Overmier and M.E.P. Seligman, “Effects of Inescapable Shock upon Subsequent Escape and Avoidance Behavior, Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1967, 63, 23–33; M.E.P. Seligman and S.F. Maier, “Failure to Escape Traumatic Shock,” Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1967, 74, 1–9; and S.F. Maier and M.E.P. Seligman, “Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1976, 105, 3–46.

  more than thirty years ago J.S. Watson, “Memory and ‘Contingency Analysis’ in Infant Learning,” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1967, 12, 139–152; J.S. Watson, “Cognitive-Perceptual Development in Infancy: Setting for the Seventies,” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1971, 17, 139–152.

  opposite end of the life cycle E. Langer and J. Rodin, “The Effects of Choice and Enhanced Personal Responsibility for the Aged: A Field Experiment in an Institutional Setting,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976, 34, 191–198; and J. Rodin and E. Langer, “Long-Term Effects of a Control-Relevant Intervention with the Institutionalized Aged,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977, 35, 897–902.

  control over one’s life matters R.E. Lane provides a detailed discussion of the prominence given to personal control, or self-determination, in the history of Western philosophy and democratic theory. See The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, Chapter 13. As should be clear both from the title of Lane’s book and from the title of that chapter (“The Pain of Self-Determination in Democracy”), the general thrust of his argument is that excessive aspiration to self-determination brings suffering in its wake.

  revised theory of helplessness L.Y. Abramson, M.E.P. Seligman, and J. Teasdale, “Learned Helplessness in Humans: Critique and Reformulation,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1978, 87, 32–48.

  yielded impressive results For a review of tests of the role of attributional style in helplessness-induced depression, see C. Peterson and M.E.P. Seligman, “Causal Explanations as a Risk Factor for Depression: Theory and Evidence,” Psychological Review, 1984, 91, 347–374. For another very influential theory of depression related to helplessness theory, see A.T. Beck, Depression: Clinical, Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects (New York: Hoeber, 1967); A.T. Beck, The Diagnosis and Management of Depression (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971); and A.T.Beck, Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders (New York: International Universities Press, 1976).

  causal explanations that are accurate There are studies that suggest that taking responsibility for bad events can be helpful psychologically, at least under some circumstances. See R. Janoff-Bulman and C. Wortman, “Attributions of Blame and Coping in the ‘Real World’: Severe Accident Victims React to Their Lot,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977, 35, 351–363; H. Tennen and G. Affleck, “Blaming Others for Threatening Events,” Psychological Bulletin, 1990, 107, 209–232.

  is also on the rise For statistical information on depression and on suicide see D.L. Rosenhan and M.E.P. Seligman, Abnormal Psychology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995); R.E. Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000); American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994); J. Angst, “The Epidemiology of Depressive Disorders,” European Neuropsychopharmacology, 1995, 5, 95–98; G.L. Klerman, P.W. Lavori, J. Rice, T. Reich, J. Endicott, N.C. Andreasen, M. Keller, and R.M.A. Hirschfeld, “Birth Cohort Trends in Rates of Major Depressive Disorder: A Study of Relatives of Patients with Affective Disorder,” Archives of
General Psychiatry, 1985, 42, 689–693; and G.L. Klerman and M.M. Weissman, “Increasing Rates of Depression,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1989, 261, 2229–2235; and UNICEF, The Progress of Nations (New York: United Nations, 1993).

  to these unrealistic expectations On the importance of expectations to assessments of success and failure, see B.A. Mellars, A. Schwartz, K. Ho, and I. Ritov, “Decision Affect Theory: Emotional Reactions to the Outcomes of Risky Actions,” Psychological Science, 1997, 8, 423–429; B. Mellars and A.P. McGraw, “Anticipated Emotions as Guides to Choice,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2001, 10, 210–214; and J.A. Shepperd and J.K. McNulty, “The Affective Consequences of Expected and Unexpected Outcomes,” Psychological Science, 2002, 13, 85–88.

  social connection in contemporary life R.D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). For data on rates of depression and other psychopathology among the Amish, see J.A. Egeland and A.M. Hostetter, “Amish Study, I: Affective Disorders Among the Amish, 1976–1980,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 1983, 140, 56–61.

  body shape and body weight M.E.P. Seligman, What You Can Change and What You Can’t (New York: Knopf, 1993). See also D.L. Rosenhan and M.E.P. Seligman, Abnormal Psychology (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995) for a discussion of culture, ideal weight, and depression.

  prime candidates for depression B. Schwartz, A. Ward, J. Monterosso, S. Lyubomirsky, K. White, and D.R. Lehman, “Maximizing versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, 83, 1178–1197; and J.A. Gillham, A. Ward, and B. Schwartz, “Maximizing and Depressed Mood in College Students and Young Adolescents,” manuscript in preparation.

  highest suicide rates See R. Eckersley and K. Dear, “Cultural Correlates of Youth Suicide,” Social Science and Medicine, 2002, 55, 1891–1904; and R. Eckersley, “Culture, Health, and Well-Being,” in R. Eckersley, J. Dixon, and B. Douglas (eds.), The Social Origins of Health and Well-Being (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 51–70. Eckersley’s approach to the determinants of suicide may be seen as a modern development of the classic ideas of sociologist Emile Durkheim. See E. Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970; originally published in 1897).