Maximizing versus satisficing: happiness is a matter of choice.

By Barry Schwartz, A. Ward, J. Monterosso, Sonja Lyubomirsky, K. White, D. Lehman. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002

1,745 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aec5cbb241ecb4375694fab83af436040374f2e4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose, Choose: Emerging and Prospective Research on the Deleterious Effects of Living in Consumer Hyperchoice (2004, background): “Very recent research by Schwartz et al. (2002) and Carmon et al. (2003) also supports aspects of Iyengar and Lepper’s work.”
Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope with Uncertainty (2008, background): “Last but not least, satisfi cers are reported to be more optimistic and have higher self-esteem and life satisfaction, whereas maximizers excel in depression, perfectionism, regret, and self-blame (Schwartz et al., 2002).”
Consumer confusion proneness: scale development, validation, and application (2007, background): “In a similar vein, Schwartz et al. (2002) show that some consumers can feel worse off with too many options.”
Explaining heterogeneity in utility functions by individual differences in decision modes (2006, background): “27), a construct expressing the tendency to make optimal objective decisions as opposed to subjectively satisfying decisions (Schwartz et al., 2002).”
Uncertainty Types and Transitions in the Entrepreneurial Process (2017, background): “Such uncertainty is the key issue of the “maximizer” who is perpetually concerned that there may be some superior alternative to the options under consideration (Schwartz et al. 2002).”
Correlates with perfectionism and the utility of a dual process model (2007, methodology): “SUBJECT TERMS 16.”
A Theory of Regret Regulation 1.0 (2007, methodology): “In a separate study with again first-year students as participants (data collected autumn 2004 and autumn 2005; n = 472), we again administered the regret proneness scale, and this time we also assessed participants’ tendency to maximize versus satisfice (Schwartz et al., 2002), their dispositional ”
Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour (2015, background): “This tendency, known as satisficing [24,25], facilitates more rapid, less effortful information processing, problem-solving and decision-making, while also affording potential wellbeing benefits (see [50]).”
Failing to commit: Maximizers avoid commitment in a way that contributes to reduced satisfaction (2012, positive): “Upon arriving at the laboratory, participants completed the 13-item Maximization scale (Schwartz et al., 2002).”
How does product program innovativeness affect customer satisfaction? A comparison of goods and services (2011, background): “As the number of choices grows further, negatives escalate until we become overloaded” (Schwartz 2004, p. 2). That is, the greater the innovativeness of goods, the more likely customers are to become overwhelmed by the related complexity (e.g., Schwartz 2004; Schwartz et al. 2002 ), which produces ”
Lay Rationalism: Individual Differences in using Reason versus Feelings to Guide Decisions (2015, methodology): “Studying individual difference variables and using them to predict behaviors and attitudes has long been a tradition in psychology and consumer research (Bearden, Hardesty, and Rose 2001; Bearden and Netemeyer 1999; Lynch et al. 2010; Nenkov, Inman, and Hulland 2008; Peters et al. 2009; Puligadda, R”
A wonderful life: experiential consumption and the pursuit of happiness (2015, background): “Not surprisingly, then, people endorse more of a “satisficing” decision strategy when it comes to experiences and more of a “maximizing” strategy when it comes to possessions (Carter & Gilovich, 2010, Study 2; see Schwartz et al., 2002).”
Decision Difficulty in the Age of Consumer Empowerment (2014, background): “When evaluating product options, a satisficer will select the first option that exceeds an acceptability threshold, selecting a “good enough” option (Schwartz et al., 2002).”