“What you see determines how you interpret the world, which in turn influences what you expect of the world and how you expect the story of your life to unfold” ~ Sheena Iyengar
We humans are making decisions or choices every second in our lives. These decisions are based on past experiences, present circumstances and future possibilities. Sometimes we make decisions consciously and sometimes subconsciously. Whatever be the way to make a decision it affects our lives. This is how we move forward in our lives and therefore, it is important to make the right choices. Many sciences have started to study the brain and human behaviours that will allow us to make better decisions. Making better choices in life will allow us to live better lives. Author Sheena Iyengar in her book The Art of Choosing firmly believes in the power of making choices. In her book, she talks about how making choices affect our lives and what are the ways we can do it more effectively. Sheena thinks that in today's world the art of making decisions or the art of choosing is crucial. She is one of the renowned researchers in the field and is also the conductor of famous jam study.
This article will allow you to make the right choice of whether to read this book or not.
1. Based on our culture we can decide how many choices we want for ourselves. There are several numbers of factors that affect what choices we make. While making a choice we always want to have multiple options to choose from. But according to the book, it is not always true to have multiple options. As an individual, we can choose the number of choices we want to have for ourselves. One of the determining factors for having options or not is our culture. The culture we grew up in affects it a lot. Sheena mentions that European cultures thrive on promoting individual freedom whereas Eastern culture focuses on making decisions collectively. In a study, where Asian-American and Anglo-American children were given a toy to play with. It was found out those Asian-American kids played longer with the toy that their mothers selected whereas Anglo-American kids played longer with the toy they selected themselves.
2. It is always better to have something than nothing, right? This is what our author tells us in her book. Sheena tells us that it is so important to have a choice that even thinking of having a choice makes us happier than making the decision itself. A study, of 10,000 British civil servants, showed that employees with high salaries and more complicated jobs were healthier whereas employees with low salaries were likely to die of heart disease. It was found in the study that here health was a matter of choice. People with higher salaries, and complicated jobs were in charge of their jobs which made them happier and healthier. The feeling of having a choice to get a job done gives a sense of freedom and accountability.
3. Life is not fair and as easy as it may seem today, times can change. There will be situations in life where you will have to make hard choices. However, you might not have to these choices for yourself, someone else can make them for you. But to let anyone else make that decision for you, you need to be well informed. Sheena talks about a situation where parents were to decide between keeping their ailing child alive or not. Parents were divided into three groups as follows:
A. Parents that know nothing about their child's survival and doctors stop the treatment thereby the child dies.
B. Parents that know there are 60% chances with neurological disabilities and the treatment stops and the child dies.
C. The parents are told about the changes and they have to make a decision themselves.
It was found out that the parents in groups A and C felt that were not given enough choice or they were not well informed about the decision. However, group B felt good because they knew exactly what was going on. Group B's parents were satisfied and felt confident that they made the right choice.
Conclusion
If you are someone who is indecisive or finds it difficult to make the right choice, you can give this book a read. Sheena Iyengar in her book The Art of Choosing beautifully explains the importance of making the right choice and how to do it more effectively. This book will help you understand how we make choices and how does it impact every aspect of our lives. If you like this book you surely will like How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer. Jonah also talks about how we decide or choose what we choose.
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