16 February 2009

The real crisis? We stopped being wise. Barry Schwartz on TED.com

In the latest release from TED2009, psychologist Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world. (Recorded February 2009 in Long Beach, California. Duration: 20:45.)

Watch Barry Schwartz's talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 360+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about philosophy.

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13 August 2008

Archive: Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice, on TED.com

For the next week, we're presenting some of our favorite TEDTalks from among the 270+ talks and performances we've posted since June 2006. Look for brand-new TEDTalks starting August 18. Until then, enjoy these gems -- and suggest your own by writing to contact@ted.com or joining the conversation on TED.com.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz studies freedom of choice -- and has made some surprising findings. A wealth of choices, he has found, can make us not happier but more dissatisfied, not free but paralyzed. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 19:48)

Watch Barry Schwartz's 2005 talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 270+ TEDTalks.

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26 October 2007

How toddlers (and monkeys) make choices

What's the relationship between our happiness and the choices we make? TEDTalks from Barry Schwartz and Daniel Gilbert point out some paradoxes of this relationship, and the complex emotions involved in choice. Now, some new research from Yale sheds light on how toddlers and monkeys make choices. From the BPS Research Digest Blog:

Forty 4-year-olds used a scale of smiley faces to indicate how much they liked a range of animal stickers. For each child, the researchers identified three stickers which that child liked equally – let’s call these A, B, C. Each child then faced two choices – first to choose which of A or B they would like to take home. Afterwards, they then had to choose between sticker C and whichever sticker (A or B) they hadn’t selected before.

The surprising result was, faced with the second choice, the kids overwhelmingly picked sticker C -- though they'd liked all three stickers equally at first. The other surprising result was, the researchers got the same result with capuchin monkeys, who chose among three different-colored M&Ms.

For more on this study, read the journal abstract or a detailed post on the blog The Proper Study of Mankind.

Photo from Wikimedia:
Cebus capucinus: Capuchin Monkeys Sharing
Source: Powell K: Economy of the Mind. PLoS Biol 1/3/2003: e77. Photo courtesy of Frans de Waal.

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