The Art of Choosing: The Decisions We Make Everyday of Our Lives, What They Say About Us and How We Can Improve Them - Hardcover

Sheena Iyengar's groundbreaking research on choice has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Security Education Program. She holds degrees from UPenn, The Wharton School of Business, and Stanford University. She is a professor at Columbia University, and a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award. Her work is regularly cited in periodicals as diverse as Fortune and Time magazines, the NYT and the WSJ, in books such as Blink and The Paradox of Choice.

Why would you choose to listen to this audiobook? As Sheena Iyengar points out in her engaging study, our choices are part of a constantly changing interactive relationship with our environment. We choose our clothes, for example, to distinguish ourselves from what we perceive to be "average," and yet we don't want to stand out too much. We fiercely believe in choosing our own life partners, yet 20 years after tying the knot, people in arranged marriages tend to be happier. Before the fall of Communism, Eastern Europeans were unhappy about their limited consumer choices, yet years after the fall many of them find consumer choice to be a prison. Orlagh Cassidy narrates with a scholarly, balanced sensibility that keeps the work appealing. She adds an empathetic touch when recounting Iyengar's anecdotes about her childhood and Sikh extended family. Those who loved BLINK, THE WISDOM OF CROWDS, or FREAKONOMICS are sure to enjoy this. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine