Top Sheena Iyengar Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Sheena Iyengar Biography

Sheena S. Iyengar (born November 29, 1969) is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School. Her research focuses on why people want choice, what affects how and what we choose, and how we can improve our decision-making outcomes.

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Sheena Iyengar Quotes

We have the ability to create choice by altering our interpretations of the world.

Choices, World, Interpretation, Choice, Ability, Interpretations

One could even argue that we have a duty to create and pass on stories about choice because once a person knows such stories, they can't be taken away from him. He may lose his possessions, his home, his loved ones, but if he holds on to a story about choice, he retains the ability to practice choice.

Home, Ones, Possessions, Practice, Taken

And guys will say looks matter, but they'll also say things like "Well, she should be smart and kind. " And you know those are. . . so the typical responses and if you give them just a few options, like five or six, then they will rate them on the very characteristics that they said were really important to them.

Giving, Guy, Guys, Like, Matter, Smart

One day I went to the manager and I asked him whether his model was working and he said, "Well, haven't you seen how many customers we have in this store?" And yes indeed I had. I mean it was definitely attracting a lot of customers, even attracting tourist buses that would land up at this store and people would go through the store and marvel at all the options, even sometimes take photographs of the various aisles.

Mean, Land, People, Tourist, Take, Manager

I don't know if I approach choice any differently than the sighted people do, but what I am very cognizant of is that choice does have limits and because of that I really try to take advantage of the domains in which I do have choice.

Approach, Choices, Differently, Domains, People, Trying

I do think that there are cultural differences in the extent to which we value having more and more choice.

Thinking, Differences, Choices, Value, Think

Choosing is a creative process, one through which we construct our environment, our lives, ourselves.

Construct, Creative, Environment, Lives, Process

I was living, growing up in a very traditional household and yet at the same time I was going to school in the United States where I was taught the importance of personal preference, so at home it was all about learning your duties and responsibilities whereas in school it was all about well you get to decide what you want you want to eat.

Growing Up, Responsibility, Home, Growing, Traditional

Like, people are less likely to invest in their retirement when they have more options in their 401K plans than when they have fewer.

Retirement, People, Plans, Options, Fewer

Being a Sikh meant having to do what Mom and Dad said, and going to temple, and Mom and Dad choosing who I would marry. But going to an American school taught me that I was the one who's supposed to make those choices.

Choices, Dad, Mom, School, Sikh, Taught

As we get older, we get better at choosing in ways that will make us happy. We do a better job at picking activities that make us happy, and at spending time with people who make us happy. We're also better at letting things go.

Get Better, Jobs, Letting, People, Picking, Spending

Are you going to be able to shave your legs? Are you going to be able to get married? So it was constantly thinking about both choice in terms of possibilities - I mean because choice is the thing that is supposed to enable you to be whatever it is you want to be - and yet, at the same time you have to think about choice in terms of its limitations.

Mean, Thinking, Choices, Possibilities, Terms

I could wear makeup today, and one person would say it looks bland, another would say it looks fake, and another might tell me I look really natural. Everyone is convinced their opinion is the truth, and that's what I struggle against.

Against, Fake, Makeup, Natural, Struggle, Tell

You know, you take a little infant and you turn on the music mobile on their crib and you find that if you give them a music mobile which turns on automatically versus a music mobile in which - if by chance their little legs or their little hands accidentally touches it - turns on they're so much more excited if by chance it turns on because they touched it, so that desire for control over their environment is. . . really appears from very early on and if you look at children's first words, "no, yes. "

Appears, Automatically, Children, Giving, Hands, Legs

I put out a good 10 different types of drinks for them and they just said, "Oh, okay, so it's just one choice. " One choice? I gave you Coke, Pepsi, Ginger Ale, Sprite. They saw that as one choice. Now why was that one choice? Because they felt, well, it was just all soda.

Choices, Ale, Pepsi, Drinks, Saw, Said

We make choices and are in turn made by them.

Choices, Made, Make, Turn, Turns

The saying goes that history repeats itself; personal histories do the same. We can gather the lessons of others' lives through observation, conversation, and by seeking advice. We can use the automatic system to find out who the happy people are, and the reflective system to evaluate how they got to be that way. Pursuing happiness need not be a lonely endeavor. In fact, throwing in our lot with others may be a very good way of coping with the disappointments of choice.

Disappointment, History, Lonely, People, Use

What we share with animals is a desire for choice. It's a desire to have control over our life and a desire to live and use choice as a way in which we can facilitate our ability to live and that is something we really were born with.

Animal, Animals, Choices, Desire, Live, Use

Once the jazz musician learns all the fundamentals they can keep track of a lot of choices in an instant.

Choices, Jazz, Keep, Musician, Track

You know, or three kinds of ice cream bars and you'd see this and like this. . . okay they could clearly benefit from some more choices and I remember having these discussions with the Japanese because they you know they often like to go to Hawaii for vacation because it was definitely much cheaper for them and I would ask them, "So when you go to Hawaii, you know do eat all these other things?"

Vacation, Ice Cream, Choices, Cream, Eat, Bars

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