Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
2-2020
Abstract
The proliferation of products and services, together with the rise of social media, affords people the opportunity to make more choices than ever before. However, the requirement to think in terms of choice, or to use a choice mind-set, may have powerful but unexamined consequences for judgment and decision making, both for the chooser and for others. A choice mind-set leads people to engage in cognitive processes of discrimination and separation, to emphasize personal freedom and independent agency, and to focus on themselves rather than others. Reviewing research from social psychology, legal studies, health and nutrition, and consumer behavior, we found evidence that although a choice mind-set may have positive consequences for the individual, the accumulated outcome of thinking in terms of individual choice may have detrimental outcomes for society. Given the prevalence of choice in all domains of life, more research examining the full range of the consequences of choice is urgently needed.
Keywords
choice, mind-set, individual, society, agency
Discipline
Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Marketing
Research Areas
Marketing
Publication
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Volume
29
Issue
1
First Page
80
Last Page
85
ISSN
0963-7214
Identifier
10.1177/0963721419885988
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
MADAN, Shilpa; NANAKDEWA, Kevin; SAVANI, Krishna; and MARKUS, Hazel Rose.
The paradoxical consequences of choice: Often good for the individual, perhaps less so for society?. (2020). Current Directions in Psychological Science. 29, (1), 80-85.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7245
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419885988