What is the relationship between how we choose and who we are? Do we have the ability to exercise control over ourselves and our environment?
‘The Art of Choosing’ by Sheena Iyengar explains the cause behind of our choices we make in our life through numerous research and examples. I found these below research findings very appealing.
Author sets the tone by highlighting the study conducted on animals; Curt Richter’s experiment on rats is very noteworthy. He placed dozens of rats into glass jars – one rodent per jar- and then filled the jars with water. The rats were left in a literal sink-or-swim situation. The researchers were puzzled when rats of equal fitness swam for markedly different lengths of time. Some rats were more convinced than others that if they continue to swim, they would eventually escape. The takeaway from this research is about the persistency they exhibited could well have paid off in the real world.
Experiments conducted by Professor Michael Marmot of University College London is very relevant for all of us. ‘The less control people had over their work, the higher their blood pressure during working hours’. Stress can be due to work related and daily grinds that are beyond our control, such as traffic jams, smog, noise et al. But we have the ability to create choice by altering our interpretations of the world – ‘learned optimism’.
Experiment on Children, the ‘the marshmallow studies’ is intuitive. It goes like this… the man asks a four year old little boy to point out the snack he would like to eat the most, and the boy chooses marshmallows (candy). But the deal with the little boy is - ‘he can have only one marshmallow or he can have two after the man is back’. The man gives a tiny bell to the kid and asks to ring the bell to call him. On an average, the children waited only three minutes. Follow-up studies found that the teenagers who had exercised self-control all those years ago went on to have stronger friendships, better coping skills and fewer behaviour problems. Though self-control may not be solely responsible for the positive outcomes, the co-relation suggests that we should not underestimate its impact on our lives.
Robert Goizeuta, CEO of Coca-Cola Company in 1980’s challenged their colleagues’ notions of growth. Since they owned 45% of market share in Soft drinks, they targeted 5 to 10% growth for next few years. Goizeuta asked them “What % of entire liquid market – not soft drinks market?” The answer was just 2% . He reframed the issue and encouraged his colleagues to broaden the vision. By 1997 the stock burgeoned from $4.3 billion to $152 billion. Author says, every time we encounter new information or re-examine old information, we are influenced by its presentation. We can use framing to our advantage, but sometimes it has a negative impact on the quality of our decisions.
She advises the reader to focus on things that really matter, than avoid running ourselves ragged over decisions that are simply not important in the long run. The cumulative results of the diverse array of studies revealed, that we have the power to reduce the exhausting effects of choice, not by expanding our options but by delegating parts of a decision to others or by limiting ourselves in ways that positively affect the choosing process. She says – science can assist us in becoming more skilful choosers, but at its core, choice remains an art. We must embrace uncertainty and contradiction.
My take –‘The Art of Choosing’ is a great compilation of psychological research; a book of self-discovery and must read for all Marketing professionals.
Author dwells on varied subjects like marriage, religion, faith, impact of advertisements on our choice and investor behaviour patterns.
Except initial chapters, the writing style is not very involving as the reader can drift away from the book. A mix of narrative and creative style would have been highly engaging as the subject is very abstract.
On the lighter side, since nobody can access our source code to undo our decisions, it is useful to be aware of our choices.
In case you missed The movie Sourcecode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm9eCIwiHkQ
