People had just assumed that the managerial and education
practices that had beenobserved inthe U.S. were universal. It was novel to see that they really were not as universal as peo- ple thought.
Is the current economic climate stifling choice? Well, I do think that people have fewer choices. There is no doubt about that. And for some—no, actually, for many— that will meana lower quality of life. Will that force people to think about their priorities because
they will have fewer choices available to them? Sure. Or, at least, for some it will.Will that force some to be more creative about creating choices? Sure. There are lots of examples throughout history of great creativity coming out of constraints. One of the interesting characteristics of many successful figures and leaders throughout history has beentheir ability to take a des- perate situation and, in the midst of that desperate situation, cre- ate choices where others do not see choices.
Are there ways in which your research can be applied to designing conferences? I actually have a number of studies that have also been mak- ing the rounds in corporate circumstances.Andthey look athow —if you have to provide people a lot of choice—do you do it in a way that is not overwhelming. Say you have many different simultaneous events. It’s a bad
idea to put them in a long list. What you instead do is you take those events and then you divide them up into categories. Per category, Iamonly going to give themfive choices. Because actu- ally comparing the choices is a lot of work.
As a conference attendee, have you made any personal observations about choice? One thing that I suspect is true, and was actually thinking about testing, is that a lot of times, conferences will give you two or three choices of keynotes. I actually think that, over- all, it lowers satisfaction.Not [in terms of] the keynote address, per se, but of the conference as a whole. Because what happens is that [attendees] start to compare and con- trast who got the better speaker. And so they are kind of feeling dissatisfied. I think it is actually not a good idea to give them choice about the keynote, because it reduces cohesion amongst the conference attendees. From the conference-maker’s perspective, they are
probably thinking, “Look, I brought you three of the best speakers. Collectively, I have increased your likelihood of finding
the speaker that is exactly what you need.” But froma satisfac- tion perspective from the attendees, you have actually lowered it, I think.
In your 2010 book, The Art of Choosing, you wrote that “science can assist us in becoming more skillful choosers, but at its core, choice remains an art.” What do you mean by that? The short answer to that is that science can teach you to be more skillful becausewhat science teaches you ishowto align the odds more in your favor. And that will reduce some amount of uncer- tainty and ambiguity. But that is all science can do. It does not tell you what to choose.
Barbara Palmer is a senior editor of Convene.
CHOOSING CHOICE: Sheena Iyengar, who has been blind since childhood, has turned that to her advantage as a researcher. “One of the interesting things about being blind,” she said at TEDGlobal, “is you actually get a different vantage point when you observe the way that sighted people make choices.”