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Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice

Author

Listed:
  • Sunstein, Cass R.

    (Harvard Law School)

Abstract
Our ability to make choices is fundamental to our sense of ourselves as human beings, and essential to the political values of freedom-protecting nations. Whom we love; where we work; how we spend our time; what we buy; such choices define us in the eyes of ourselves and others, and much blood and ink has been spilt to establish and protect our rights to make them freely. Choice can also be a burden. Our cognitive capacity to research and make the best decisions is limited, so every active choice comes at a cost. In modern life the requirement to make active choices can often be overwhelming. So, across broad areas of our lives, from health plans to energy suppliers, many of us choose not to choose. By following our default options, we save ourselves the costs of making active choices. By setting those options, governments and corporations dictate the outcomes for when we decide by default. This is among the most significant ways in which they effect social change, yet we are just beginning to understand the power and impact of default rules. Many central questions remain unanswered: When should governments set such defaults, and when should they insist on active choices? How should such defaults be made? What makes some defaults successful while others fail? Cass R. Sunstein has long been at the forefront of developing public policy and regulation to use government power to encourage people to make better decisions. In this major new book, Choosing Not to Choose, he presents his most complete argument yet for how we should understand the value of choice, and when and how we should enable people to choose not to choose. The onset of big data gives corporations and governments the power to make ever more sophisticated decisions on our behalf, defaulting us to buy the goods we predictably want, or vote for the parties and policies we predictably support. As consumers we are starting to embrace the benefits this can bring. But should we? What will be the long-term effects of limiting our active choices on our agency? And can such personalized defaults be imported from the marketplace to politics and the law? Confronting the challenging future of data-driven decision-making, Sunstein presents a manifesto for how personalized defaults should be used to enhance, rather than restrict, our freedom and well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunstein, Cass R., 2015. "Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190231699.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxp:obooks:9780190231699
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Salvat, 2017. "Living by Default," Post-Print halshs-01590753, HAL.
    2. Abigail N. Devereaux, 2019. "The nudge wars: A modern socialist calculation debate," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 139-158, June.
    3. John Davis, 2018. "Extending behavioral economics' methodological critique of rational choice theory," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 2(2), pages 5-9, September.
    4. Ortiz, Jose M. & Teixeira, Lucas I. & Falcão, Natália N.L. & Soki, Erika A. & Almeida, Raquel M., 2024. "Information simplification and default choices improve financial decisions: A credit card statement experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Jean-François Gajewski & Marco Heimann & Luc Meunier, 2022. "Nudges in SRI: The Power of the Default Option," Post-Print hal-03156921, HAL.
    6. Au, Pak Hung & Li, King King & Zhang, Qing & Zhu, Rong, 2023. "The Hidden Costs of Choice in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 16623, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C., 2021. "Active choice, implicit defaults, and the incentive to choose," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 6-16.
    8. David Schneider & Johannes Klumpe & Martin Adam & Alexander Benlian, 2020. "Nudging users into digital service solutions," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(4), pages 863-881, December.
    9. William Davies, 2017. "How are we now? Real-time mood-monitoring as valuation," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 34-48, January.
    10. Guilhem Lecouteux, 2023. "The Homer economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 176-187, April.
    11. Gregory Wolcott, 2019. "Restricting Choices: Decision Making, the Market Society, and the Forgotten Entrepreneur," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 293-314, May.
    12. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, Kene, 2018. "Do people really want freedom of choice? : Assessing preferences of pension holders," Other publications TiSEM 448e8a93-9ded-401f-9da0-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Kevin Leportier, 2024. "Preserving Freedom in Times of Urgency," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04571504, HAL.
    14. Sören Bär & Laura Korrmann & Markus Kurscheidt, 2022. "How Nudging Inspires Sustainable Behavior among Event Attendees: A Qualitative Analysis of Selected Music Festivals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-26, May.
    15. Ramzi Mabsout, 2022. "John Stuart Mill, soft paternalist," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(1), pages 161-186, January.
    16. Dwenger, Nadja & Kübler, Dorothea & Weizsäcker, Georg, 2018. "Flipping a coin: Evidence from university applications," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 167, pages 240-250.
    17. Michelle Baddeley, 2017. "Keynes’ psychology and behavioural macroeconomics: Theory and policy," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(2), pages 177-196, June.
    18. Ackfeld, Viola & Ockenfels, Axel, 2021. "Do people intervene to make others behave prosocially?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 58-72.
    19. Goldin, Jacob & Reck, Daniel, 2018. "Rationalizations and mistakes: optimal policy with normative ambiguity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89237, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Kolosz, B.W. & Athanasiadis, I.N. & Cadisch, G. & Dawson, T.P. & Giupponi, C. & Honzák, M. & Martinez-Lopez, J. & Marvuglia, A. & Mojtahed, V. & Ogutu, K.B.Z. & Van Delden, H. & Villa, F. & Balbi, S., 2018. "Conceptual advancement of socio-ecological modelling of ecosystem services for re-evaluating Brownfield land," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(PA), pages 29-39.
    21. Roberta Muramatsu & Fabio Barbieri, 2017. "Behavioral economics and austrian economics: Lessons for policy and the prospects of nudges," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 1(1), pages 73-78, February.
    22. Guilhem Lecouteux, 2022. "The Homer economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies," Working Papers hal-03791951, HAL.
    23. Jean-Francois Gajewski & Marco Heimann & Luc Meunier, 2022. "Nudges in SRI: The Power of the Default Option," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 547-566, May.
    24. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson & Korey Rubenstein, 2022. "The potential of a union default to influence the preferences and choices of non-union workers in unionised workplaces," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(4), pages 1817-1841, November.

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