Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania. He has been there since receiving his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Schwartz has written ten books and more than 100 articles for professional journals. In 2004, Schwartz published The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. The message of the book is that too many choices can paralyze people into inaction, and cause them to be dissatisfied with even good decisions. It was named one of the top business books of the year by both Business Week and Forbes Magazine, and has been translated into twenty languages. Since it’s publication, Schwartz has published articles on various aspects of its main thesis in sources as diverse as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Parade Magazine, USA Today, Advertising Age, Slate, Scientific American, The New Republic, Newsday, the AARP Bulletin, the Harvard Business Review, and the Guardian. He has appeared on dozens of radio shows, including NPR’s Morning Edition, and Talk of the Nation, and has been interviewed on Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN), the Lehrer News Hour (PBS), and CBS Sunday Morning.

He has lectured to audiences as large as 5000, among them the British and the Dutch governments, as well as trade organizations and businesses representing industries as diverse as healthcare, personal finance, travel and leisure, restaurants, supermarkets, consumer electronics, office supplies, software development, e-commerce, advertising, arts and entertainment, cable television, home building, and the military. It appears that the “choice problem” is relevant in every corner of modern society. In January, 2009, Schwartz began writing a blog for Psychology Today magazine. The blog, called “The Choices Worth Having” discusses various issues at the intersection of psychology and economics, with an eye toward public policy.