RESEARCH_FILE
Sheena Iyengar
Columbia Business School
Known for:The landmark jam study demonstrating choice overload in a real-world grocery setting, and research on how maximizing behavior shapes job-search satisfaction
SEE THE PRACTICE
Turn a thought this research explains into one clear move.
THE THOUGHT
“What if I make the wrong call”
YOUR RECORDED RESPONSE
“I can make the call and let it stand unless there’s a real reason to change it.”
ONE PRIVATE MOVE
Pick one small reversible choice from today, open it, and write one plain sentence beside it: why you chose it. Then leave it closed for the next ten minutes.
Key findings
- 2000
With Mark Lepper, Iyengar showed in a grocery field experiment that a display of 24 jam varieties attracted more browsers but yielded roughly one-tenth the purchase rate of a display with 6 varieties — providing the first real-world demonstration of choice overload. When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? ↗
- 2006
With Wells and Schwartz, Iyengar tracked MBA students' job searches and found that maximizers secured higher-paying positions than satisficers yet ended their search less satisfied — demonstrating that superior objective outcomes decouple from subjective well-being when counterfactual thinking is fueled by a maximizing orientation. Doing Better but Feeling Worse: Looking for the 'Best' Job Undermines Satisfaction ↗