# Barry Schwartz ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2025-08-23_Barry_Schwartz.jpg|400]] Barry Schwartz (born August 15, 1946) is an American psychologist and the Dorwin Cartwright Emeritus Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. Since 2016, he has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His work focuses on the intersection of psychology and economics. Schwartz is best known for his book "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less" (2004), which argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. His research addresses morality, decision-making, and the inter-relationships between behavioral science and society. He is a critic of the "rational economic man" model in both psychology and economics. Schwartz frequently publishes editorials in The New York Times, applying his research in psychology to current events. He has written several influential books and is a popular TED speaker, with his 2005 TED talk "The Paradox of Choice" being widely viewed. He earned his B.A. from New York University in 1968 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. ## Quotes <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Barry Schwartz]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> <!-- SerializedQuery: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Barry Schwartz]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> - [[Choose less and feel better]] - [[Focus on what makes you happy, and do what gives meaning to your life]] - [[Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard]] - [[The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer. To satisfice is to settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better]] - [[The fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better]] - [[The mistake is to assume that the way it feels at the moment is the way it will feel forever]] - [[The secret to happiness is low expectations]] - [[To satisfice is to settle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better]] - [[Unfortunately, the proliferation of choice in our lives robs us of the opportunity to decide for ourselves just how important any given decision is]] - [[We are free to be the authors of our own lives, but we don't know what kind of lives we want to write]] - [[We are surrounded by modern, time-saving devices, but we never seem to have enough time]] - [[We get what we say we want, only to discover that what we want doesn’t satisfy us to the degree that we expect]] - [[We have a tendency to look around at what others are doing and use them as a standard of comparison]] <!-- SerializedQuery END --> ## Books <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #books AND [[Barry Schwartz]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> <!-- SerializedQuery: LIST FROM #books AND [[Barry Schwartz]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> - [[The Paradox of Choice (book)]] <!-- SerializedQuery END -->