|
|
Welcome to The Iyengar Lab
Columbia University
3022 Broadway
Uris Hall B205
New York, NY 10027
(212) 854-8539
No idea is more
fundamental to Americans′ sense of themselves as individuals and
as a culture than choice. The United States has come to epitomize the ″republic
of choice.″ Liberty, after all, is subordinate only to life
itself in the American Declaration of Independence. From the practice
of a free market economy, to the use of ″pro-choice″ as a
persuasive device in current political debates, to the near ″tyranny
of choice″ permeating consumer markets- evident in the sometimes
overwhelming array of selections in supermarkets and coffee shops, not
to mention the Internet, the glorification of choice in
American society is ubiquitous.
My research
challenges the basic assumption that choice is always preferred and
unilaterally beneficial. In general, my research examines contexts in
which people actually prefer to have their choices limited or entirely
removed. A number of my cross-cultural studies, for instance,
have demonstrated that the preference for choice is not a globally
shared desire and, indeed, members of non-Western cultures often prefer
to have their choices made by others. Moreover, despite the rhetoric of
choice in American society, my research further shows that even
choice-loving Americans increasingly prefer to have their option set
limited, rather than expanded.
When do we prefer to
have and make our own choices? When do we wish others would assist us
in making choices? When do we wish our choices to conform to those of
the crowd and when do we wish our choices to express uniqueness from
others? When do our decisions suffer on account of the burdens of
choosing and how can we increase the quality of people's decisions?
These questions and more are being examined with participants of all
ages, through a series of laboratory studies, ethnographic studies,
focus groups, and questionnaires. If interested in participating in any
one of these studies, please contact my lab at (212) 854-8539.
If you are interested in becoming a research assistant, please
email: Sheena S. Iyengar
|
|