A500.4.3.RB - Ballet Slippers or Adorable?

A500.4.3.RB - Ballet Slippers or Adorable? View the TED video (Links to an external site.) by Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing. Dr. Iyengar assumes that Americans believe the following when it comes to making choices:

1. Make your own choices,
2. More options leads to better choices, and
3. Never say no to choice.

Reflect on these assumptions in your Leadership blog. Do you agree with Dr. Iyengar? What is the implication of her comments on leadership? Make sure to stay tuned through the end to see Dr. Iyengar's Action Research on pink nail polish.

Oh how I loved this video! Iyengar was brilliant to listen to and realizing that she is blind made her subject all the more provocative. I think that her three assumptions are mostly correct. However, do I think they are mostly correct because I genuinely agree or is it because that is what I have been told is the great thing about choice and therefore, those assumptions must be true? I watched every single episode of Mad Men (The AMC show about the advertising world in the late 1950's through 1970 in New York City.) and was shocked to see how even some of the most poignant ads we see on TV are all just a manipulative way to sell something. So, did Madison Ave ad execs tell me that those three assumptions are true or do I honestly believe that more options lead to better choices? Sheena Iyengar's points on the nail polish colors was absolutely wonderful. I love that when she took the labels off the bottles people thought that she was playing a joke on them and that the two colors were the same. The sales people used words like 'glamorous' and 'elegant' to sell her shades of nail  polish that were virtually the same thing. (And what does 'glamorous' or 'elegant' mean to someone who is blind? How do they qualify those descriptions?) I wonder how we would fair if we tested ourselves in this manner? What if we honestly and critically looked at the choices we made and asked ourselves why we made the choices that we did? Who is being fooled indeed!

Iyengar's story about the babies having the birth defect and the difference in culture where in America, the parents made the choice to remove the life support and in France, the doctors made the decision was absolutely mind blowing. The American parents couldn't even imagine the doctors making the choice for their baby but yet some of them felt as if they were made to be part of an execution. That is the truest example of what a double-edged sword choices can be. We, as Americans, are so aware of our civil rights and our right to choose that even when faced with making a choice that is heart wrenching, we'd rather have to suffer through that than have someone else make it for us. I think that the doctors in France were actually more compassionate to the parents by limiting the choice and taking that guilt upon themselves. I don't have children though so my perspective is purely hypothetical. This need to make these choices ourselves must come from a place of insecurity though. We need to have control at all times and someone else making a choice for us is taking that control from us and that is scary. God forbid any red-blooded American let someone else make choices for them...but don't we do that every day? We let advertisers and our peers make decisions for us all the time. We wear certain clothes and eat certain foods for a reason, yes? We just think that we make the decisions ourselves when in fact, we are choosing from a selection that has been made for us.

(Think "The Devil Wears Prada" -

 Miranda Priestly: 'Oh. Okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select... I don't know... that lumpy blue sweater, for instance because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. ...[T]hat blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff."

Quoted from http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0009660/quotes )

When I think about choice, another thing that comes to mind is that dreaded soda machine that is in some fast food restaurants. I think it is full of Coke products but there are literally thousands of options on this touch-screen machine. I don't know how people aren't spending hours standing in front of this thing trying to figure out what they want. This machine gave me anxiety! I have navigated through the anxiety by just bypassing all of the choices and going straight for the Mello-Yello because to me, it is the most benign choice. Not only is it Mello...but it is Yello...and that is good to me. Too many choices, like this soda machine, are just too much. It feels almost decadent and indecent to live in a society where we spend time choosing from 4,700 soda options when across the world, a child is making pennies a day to make the shoes we wear and take for granted, or a single mother is trying to feed her children on scraps of leftover rice while going without food herself.

That being said...some choices are good. Never saying no to choice is tough sometimes though. There is a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure on Americans to make these truly pointless choices. But, I don't think I want to be told what to eat, when to sleep or what to do with my children. However, there should be a medium ground where common sense and control rule with a modicum of dignity. What Iyengar didn't discuss at length was the repercussions of our choices. (I know that probably wasn't part of the scope of her discussion though.) With less choices, or no choices, we relinquish responsibility for the choices we made or are made for us. Americans have virtually limitless choices in pretty much every aspect of our lives, but not everyone is aware of the accountability in our choices, for better or worse. When we purchase goods that perpetuate child labor, we need to take responsibility for that. When we buy local produce at a farmer's market, we are contributing back to the community. The awareness that comes from understanding that our choices have consequences help us become a more compassionate, educated and critical thinking society.

Back to the original question though, do I agree with the three assumptions Sheena Iyengar started with? I'm conflicted with conscience and awareness but do admit that having choices is better than not having choices! So after reflecting on choices, I'll admit to agreeing that those assumptions are correct in general but on an individual basis do vary.