PSYC 223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Counterfactual Thinking
5 Feb 2017
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If we want to maximize the welfare of our citizens, we must maximize individual freedom. Freedom is in and of itself good, worthwhile, valuable and essential to being human. If people are free people can act on their own to maximize their welfare and don"t need to rely on others to achieve happiness. To maximize freedom, people must be given choices. The more choices people have the more freedom they have to decide what they want. Since people are inherently motivated to obtain what is good for them, giving people more choices will allow them to pursue everything that is good for them. Decision autonomy sounds like a good thing but it"s really often used to shift the burden from one person to another. The two primary downsides of living in a world of ever-increasing choices: increased decision paralysis, decreased satisfaction. The more options we have, the more difficult it is to choose.
