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The Paradoxical Consequences Of Choice: Often Good For The Individual, Perhaps Less So For Society?, Shilpa Madan, Kevin Nanakdewa, Krishna Savani, Hazel Rose Markus

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The proliferation of products and services, together with the rise of social media, affords people the opportunity to make more choices than ever before. However, the requirement to think in terms of choice, or to use a choice mind-set, may have powerful but unexamined consequences for judgment and decision making, both for the chooser and for others. A choice mind-set leads people to engage in cognitive processes of discrimination and separation, to emphasize personal freedom and independent agency, and to focus on themselves rather than others. Reviewing research from social psychology, legal studies, health and nutrition, and consumer behavior, we …