Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them. While a choice can be made between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?"), often a choice is made between real options and followed by the corresponding action. For example, a route for a journey is chosen based on the preference of arriving at a given destination as soon as possible. The preferred (and therefore chosen) route is then derived from information about how long each of the possible routes take. This can be done by a route planner. If the preference is more complex, such as involving the scenery of the route, cognition and feeling are more intertwined, and the choice is less easy to delegate to a computer program or assistant.

More complex examples (often decisions that affect what a person thinks or their core beliefs) include choosing a lifestyle, religious affiliation, or political position.

Most people regard having choices as a good thing, though a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing and possibly, an unsatisfactory outcome. In contrast, unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.

Types of choices[link]

There are four main types of decisions, although they can be expressed in different ways. Brian Tracy, who often uses enumerated lists in his talks, breaks them down into:^[1]

1. Command decisions, which can only be made by you, as the "Commander in Chief"; or owner of a company.
2. Delegated decisions, which may be made by anyone, such as the color of the bike shed, and should be delegated, as the decision must be made but the choice is inconsequential.
3. Avoided decisions, where the outcome could be so severe that the choice should not be made, as the consequences can not be recovered from if the wrong choice is made. This will most likely result in negative actions, such as death.
4. "No-brainer" decisions, where the choice is so obvious that only one choice can reasonably be made.

A fifth type, however, or fourth if three and four are combined as one type, is the collaborative decision, which should be made in consultation with, and by agreement of others. Collaborative Decision Making revolutionized air-traffic safety by not deferring to the captain when a lesser crew member becomes aware of a problem.^[2]

Another way of looking at decisions focuses on the thought mechanism used, is the decision:^[3]

• Rational
• Intuitive
• Recognition based
• Combination

Recognizing that "type" is an imprecise term, an alternate way to classify types of choices is to look at outcomes and the impacted entity. For example, using this approach three types of choices would be:^[4]

• Business
• Personal
• Consumer

In this approach, establishing the types of choices makes it possible to identify the related decisions that will influence and constrain a specific choice as well as be influenced and constrained by another choice.

There are many "executive decision maker" products available, such as the decision wheels^[5] and the Magic 8-Ball, which randomly produce yes/no or other "decisions" for someone who can not make up their mind or just wants to delegate.

A Ouija board is also a delegated decision.

As a moral principle, decisions should be made by those most affected by the decision, but this is not normally applied to persons in jail, who might likely make a decision other than to remain in jail.^[6] Robert Gates cited this principle in allowing photographs of returning war dead.^[7]

Choice and evaluability in economics[link]

When choosing between options one must make judgments about the quality of each option's attributes. For example, if one is choosing between candidates for a job, the quality of relevant attributes such as previous work experience, college or high school GPA, and letters of recommendation will be judged for each option and the decision will likely be based on these attribute judgments. However, each attribute has a different level of evaluability, that is, the extent to which one can use information from that attribute to make a judgment.

An example of a highly evaluable attribute is SAT score. Everyone knows that an SAT score below 800 is very bad while an SAT score above 1500 is exceptionally good. Because the distribution of scores on this attribute is relatively well known it is a highly evaluable attribute. Compare SAT score to a poorly evaluable attribute, such as number of hours spent doing homework. Most employers would not know what 10,000 hours spent doing homework means because they have no idea of the distribution of scores of potential workers in the population on this attribute.

As a result, evaluability can cause preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations. For example, Hsee, George Loewenstein, Blount & Bazerman (1999)^[8] looked at how people choose between options when they are directly compared because they are presented at the same time or when they cannot be compared because one is only given a single option. The canonical example is a hiring decision made about two candidates being hired for a programming job. Subjects in an experiment were asked to give a starting salary to two candidates, Candidate J and Candidate S. However, some viewed both candidates at the same time (joint evaluation), whereas others only viewed one candidate (separate evaluation). Candidate J had experience of 70 KY programs, and a GPA of 2.5, whereas Candidate S had experience of 10 KY programs and a GPA of 3.9. The results showed that in joint evaluation both candidates received roughly the same starting salary from subjects, who apparently thought a low GPA but high experience was approximately equal to a high GPA but low experience. However, in the separate evaluation, subjects paid Candidate S, the one with the high GPA, substantially more money. The explanation for this is that KY programs is an attribute that is difficult to evaluate and thus people cannot base their judgment on this attribute in separate evaluation.

Personal factors determine food choice. They are preference, associations, habits, ethnic heritage, tradition, values, social pressure, emotional comfort, availability, convenience, economy, image, medical conditions, and nutrition.

Choice and choice set size[link]

A number of research studies in economic psychology have focused on how individual behavior differs when the choice set size (the number of choices to choose from) is low versus when it is high. Of particular interest is whether individuals are more likely to purchase a product from a large versus a small choice set. Currently, the effect of choice set size on the probability of a purchase is unclear. In some cases, large choice set sizes discourages individuals from making a choice^[9] and in other cases it either encourages them or has no effect.^[10]

There is unambiguous evidence that while greater choice has the potential to improve a person's welfare, there is such a thing as too much choice. For example, in one experiment involving a choice of free soda, individuals explicitly requested to choose from six as opposed to 24 sodas, where the only benefit from the smaller choice set would be to reduce the cognitive burden of the choice.^[11] Attempts to explain why choice can demotivate someone from a purchase have focuses on two factors. One assumes that perusing a larger number of choices imposes a cognitive burden on the individual.^[12] The other assumes that individuals can experience regret if they make a suboptimal choice, and sometimes avoid making a choice to avoid experiencing regret.^[13]

Individual personality plays a significant role in how individuals deal with large choice set sizes. Psychologists have developed a personality test that determines where an individual lies on the satisficer-maximizer spectrum. A maximizer is one who always seeks the very best option from a choice set, and may anguish after the choice is made as to whether it was indeed the best. Satisficers may set high standards but are content with a good choice, and place less priority on making the best choice. Due to this different approach to decision-making, maximizers are more likely to avoid making a choice when the choice set size is large, probably to avoid the anguish associated with not knowing whether their choice was optimal.^[14]

Maximizers are less happy in life, perhaps due to their obsession with making optimal choices in a society where people are frequently confronted with choice.^[15] On the other hand, people who refrain from taking better choices through drugs or other forms of escapism tend to be much happier in life. Others argue, that there is never too much choice and that there is a difference between happiness and satisfaction: a person who tries to find more optimal decisions will often be dissatisfied, but not necessarily unhappy since his attempts at finding better choices did improve his lifestyle (even if it wasn't the best decision he will continually try to incrementally improve the decisions he takes).

Other uses[link]

• law: the age at which children or young adults can make meaningful and considered choices poses issues for ethics and for jurisprudence.
• psychology: see choice theory
• mathematics: the binomial coefficient is also known as the choice function.
• politics: a political movement in the United States and United Kingdom which favors the legal availability of abortion calls itself "pro-choice".
• New Zealand English: slang synonym for "cool", "nice" or "good". "That's choice!"

See also[link]

• Choice architecture
• Decision making software
• Example Choice
• Hobson's choice
• Neuroscience of free will
• public choice theory, social choice theory
• Sudbury Valley School
• The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (book)
• Will (philosophy)
• List of thinking-related topics

References[link]

• Barry Schwartz (2005). The Paradox of Choice: why more is less. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-000569-6. 
• Rosenthal, Edward C. (2006). The Era of Choice: The Ability to Choose and Its Transformation of Contemporary Life. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-68165-X. 
• Daniel Kahneman (Editor), Amos Tversky (Editor) (1999). Choices, Values, and Frames. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62749-8. 
• Hsee, C.K., Loewenstein, G.F., Blount, S., Bazerman, M.H. (1999). Preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations of option: A review and theoretical analysis. Psychological Bulletin 125(5), 576–590.
• Irons, B. and C. Hepburn. 2007. "Regret Theory and the Tyranny of Choice." The Economic Record. 83(261): 191–203.
• Iyengar, S.S. and M.R. Lepper. 2000. "When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 70(6): 996–1006.
• Norwood, F. 2006. "Less Choice is Better, Sometimes." Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization. 4(1). Article 3.
• Norwood, F. Bailey, Jayson L. Lusk, Bharath Arunachalam, and Shida Rastegari Henneberry. "An Empirical Investigation Into the Excessive-Choice Effect." American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Forthcoming.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Choice

George Jones
Jones performing at Harrah's Metropolis in Metropolis, Illinois in June 2002
Background information
Birth name	George Glenn Jones
Also known as	No Show Jones[1] The Possum[1]
Born	(1931-09-12) September 12, 1931 (age 80) Saratoga, Texas, USA
Origin	Vidor, Texas, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	singer-songwriter
Instruments	acoustic guitar vocals
Years active	1954–present
Labels	Starday Mercury United Artists Musicor Epic MCA Nashville Asylum Bandit
Associated acts	Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard
Website	www.GeorgeJones.com

George Glenn Jones (born September 12, 1931) is an American country music singer known for his long list of hit records, his distinctive voice and phrasing, and his marriage to Tammy Wynette.

Over the past 20 years, Jones has frequently been referred to as the greatest living country singer.^[2][3] Country music scholar Bill C. Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved."

Throughout his long career, Jones made headlines often as much for tales of his drinking, stormy relationships with women, and violent rages as for his prolific career of making records and touring. His wild lifestyle led to Jones missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones."^[1] With the help of his fourth wife, Nancy, he has been sober for over 10 years. Jones has had more than 150 hits during his career, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists. The shape of his nose and facial features have given Jones the nickname "The Possum." Jones said in an interview that he has chosen to tour only about 60 dates a year.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Vidor, Texas, with his brother and five sisters.^[4] When he was seven, his parents bought a radio and he heard country music for the first time. Given a guitar when he was nine, Jones was soon busking for money on the streets of Beaumont.

He left home at 16 and went to Jasper, Texas, where he sang and played on the radio station. He married his first wife Dorothy when he was 19, but they divorced within a year. The Korean War was underway, and he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed in California for his entire service. Not long after his discharge, his music career took off.^[5]

Wild years[link]

Jones's identity was closely tied to his alcoholism. One of the best known stories of Jones' drinking days happened when he was married to his second wife, Shirley Corley. Jones recalled Shirley making it physically impossible for him to travel to Beaumont, located 8 miles away, and buy liquor. Because Jones would not walk that far, she would hide the keys to each of their cars they owned before leaving. She, however, did not hide the keys to the lawn mower. Jones recollects being upset at not being able to find any keys before looking out the window and at a light that shone over their property. He then described his thoughts, saying: "There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition. I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did."^[6]

In her 1979 autobiography, former wife Tammy Wynette recalled waking at 1 AM to find her husband gone: "I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away. When I pulled into the parking lot there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, `Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me.'"^[7]

Jones later jokingly sang of the lawn mower incident in his 1996 single "Honky Tonk Song", and parodied his arrest in the music video.

In the 1970s, a manager introduced Jones to cocaine before a show, because he was too tired to perform. His self-destructive behavior brought him close to death and he was in an Alabama psychiatric hospital by the end of the decade. Celebrated by some of his fans as the hard-drinkin', fast-livin' spiritual-son of his idol, Hank Williams, Jones missed so many engagements that he gained the nickname of "No-Show Jones." (The song "No-Show Jones" makes fun of Jones and other country singers.) He was often penniless and admits that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash came to his financial aid during this time.

Poking fun at his past, three country music videos would feature Jones arriving on a riding lawn mower. The first was Hank Williams, Jr's "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" in 1984 while the second was Vince Gill's "One More Last Chance" in 1993. Gill's song mentioned the mower with the lines "She might have took my car keys, but she forgot about my old John Deere." At the end of Gill's video, he is leaving the golf course on a John Deere tractor and greets Jones with "Hey, possum." Jones, arriving at the golf course driving a John Deere riding lawn mower with a set of golf clubs mounted behind him, replies to Gill "Hey, sweet pea." The third is John Rich's "Country Done Come to Town" and shows George mowing grass on the rooftop on a zero turn mower.

The Jones Boys band[link]

George Jones has had many great musicians over the years, with many finding much success in Nashville as session players and singers. These singers include: Hank Singer, Brittany Allyn, Sonny Curtis, Ron Gaddis, Kent Goodson, Bobby Burkhead, Dan Schafer^[8] and Steve Hinson.

Marriages[link]

Jones was married twice before he was 24. His 1950 marriage to Dorothy Bonvillion lasted a year, but they had a daughter, Susan. In 1954, Jones married Shirley Ann Corley. This marriage lasted until 1968 and produced two sons, Jeffrey and Bryan. He married Tammy Wynette in 1969. They stayed married for six years and had a daughter, Tamala Georgette. As Georgette Jones, she is a country singer and has performed on stage with her father. Jones married his current wife, Nancy Sepulvado, on March 4, 1983 in Woodville, Texas. Nancy became his manager. Jones credits his wife Nancy for rescuing him from drinking and cocaine. They now live in Franklin, Tennessee.

Wives[link]

• Dorothy Bonvillion (1950 – 1951) (divorced) 1 daughter
• Shirley Ann Corley (September 14, 1954 – June 11, 1968) (divorced) 2 sons
• Tammy Wynette (February 16, 1969 – March 13, 1975) (divorced) 1 daughter
• Nancy Sepulvado (March 4, 1983 – present)

Awards and honors[link]

Jones has received many honors during his long career, from Most Promising New Country Vocalist in 1956, being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992, and being named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2008. In 2012 he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. At the ceremony his longtime friend Merle Haggard paid tribute to him.^[9]

He served as judge in 2008 for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.^[10]

Number one country hits[link]

1. "White Lightning" (1959)
2. "Tender Years" (1961)
3. "She Thinks I Still Care" (1962)
4. "Walk Through This World with Me" (1967)
5. "We're Gonna Hold On" (with Tammy Wynette) (1973)
6. "The Grand Tour (song)" (1974)
7. "The Door (George Jones song)" (1975)
8. "Golden Ring (song)" (with Tammy Wynette) (1976)
9. "Near You" (with Tammy Wynette) (1977)
10. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)
11. "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" (with Barbara Mandrell) (1981)
12. "Still Doin' Time" (1981)
13. "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard) (1982)
14. "I Always Get Lucky with You" (1983)

Discography[link]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Marine Corps portal

• Academy of Country Music
• List of country musicians
• Country Music Association
• List of best-selling music artists
• Inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame (1992 inductee)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• I Lived to Tell it All, George Jones with Tom Carter, Dell Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-440-22373-3
• In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998, ISBN 0-375-70082-X
• Country Music U.S.A., Bill C. Malone, University of Texas Press, 1985, ISBN 0-292-71096-8
• Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs, 1944 to 2005, Record Research, Inc., Menomonee Falls, WS, 2005, ISBN 0-89820-165-9

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Jones (musician)

• Official Website
• A Tribute to the Greatest Country Song of All Time
• Official MySpace
• George Jones Country Sausage
• Record Label
• at the Country Music Hall of Fame

The Hoosiers
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Pop rock, synthpop
Years active	2003 - Present
Labels	Angelic Union
Website	thehoosiers.com
Members
Irwin Sparkes Martin Skarendahl Alphonso Sharland

The Hoosiers are an English pop/rock band, consisting of members Irwin Sparkes (lead vocals, lead guitar), Martin Skarendahl (bass guitar, rhythm guitar) and Alan Sharland (drums, percussion).

Their first single "Worried About Ray" reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in July 2007. In October 2007, they released their debut album The Trick to Life, which reached number 1 in the album charts. The band have recently released their second top ten album The Illusion of Safety which was released on 16 August 2010 and was preceded by the lead single "Choices" which was released on 1 August 2010.

Biography[link]

According to the band's self-penned biographies (found on websites and in album sleeves), 'Alphonso' Raymond Sharland (drummer) and Irwin Nathaniel Sparkes (lead singer and guitarist) spent some time in the United States, encouraged by their chemistry teacher (Grant Serpell^[1] who was part of the band Sailor during their fame in the 1970s), in an attempt to broaden their horizons. The pair won themselves a football (soccer) scholarship at the University of Indianapolis, despite a reputed claim to be "allergic to running" (a claim which is backed up by lead singer Sparkes' asthma).

Their time spent in Indiana inspired the band's name: a citizen of Indiana is colloquially called a Hoosier. Having gathered enough material to compile an album, Al and Irwin returned to London where they met Swiss keyboard player and sound engineer Duri Darms and Martin Skarendahl, a Swedish ex-fireman who was then working with Darms as a recording studio engineer and studying at The London Music School.^{[citation needed]} The original group included two band members (Tony Byrne and Tom Easey) who had by this point left, leaving Sparkes and Sharland to replace them with Skarendahl.

This newly-revamped trio of Sparkes, Skarendahl and Sharland subsequently signed to RCA and released their first album The Trick to Life on 22 October 2007. The band have spoken of their desire to write songs that are about more than just "boy and girl... finding love on a Friday night on the lash with your mates".^[2]

In February 2008 they were named as Worst Band at the annual NME awards.^[3] They are produced by ex-member of Jamiroquai, Toby Smith, and managed by Steve Morton.

The band's second single, "Goodbye Mr A", appeared in the football video game FIFA 08, and the game can also be seen in the "Goodbye Mr A" music video. Lead singer Irwin Sparkes, who is from Reading, is playing on the game as Reading against Manchester United. The song also appears in a trailer for the 2007 film Juno. Following the release of "Worst Case Scenario", the next release from The Trick to Life was "Cops and Robbers", as confirmed in a live webchat with The Hoosiers on GMTV. The video was broadcast on Channel 4 at 12:10pm on 22 March 2008.

The title track "The Trick to Life" is featured as the end credits music on the thriller From Within released in 2009 which is ironically about a series of unexplained deaths in a small town.

For their second album, The Illusion of Safety, several changes were made including a new, more synthesised sound and the drummer 'Alphonso' returning to his given name Alan. The Illusion of Safety gave the first single "Choices" and includes the song "Unlikely Hero", for which a video was filmed in a quarry in Derbyshire. The latter was due to be a single until it was announced that this was not the case on 14 October 2010.^[4]

In February 2011, the band announced via their official website that "Bumpy Ride" was to be their new single and would be released at the end of March. Their new deluxe album, also titled Bumpy Ride, was out in the April of the same year. The music video for 'Bumpy Ride' tells a story of how The Hoosiers travelled around the United States of America by various means of transport, and was possibly inspired by their earlier travels.^[5]

Departure from record label[link]

It was announced on April 1, 2011 that the band had departed from their record label Sony after a dispute over the promotion of their latest album The Illusion of Safety.^[6] Sparkes told Daily Record, "I don't think many people knew that the second album had been released, so we're having to reissue it to bring it to people's awareness."

At an intimate gig for Real Radio in Sheffield, the band announced that they were repackaging and re-releasing the album with a new title, Bumpy Ride, on April 11, 2011.^[7] The rerelease comes with 4 new album tracks, and a deluxe version comes with a DVD of live performances.

Discography[link]

• 2007: The Trick to Life
• 2010: The Illusion of Safety
• 2011: Bumpy Ride

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The Hoosiers on Myspace
• The Hoosiers on Twitter
• The Hoosiers video interview with stv/music, October 2007
• The Hoosiers Exclusive Interview
• The Hoosiers Interview

Sheena Iyengar
Born	(1969-11-29) November 29, 1969 (age 42)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Stanford University University of Pennsylvania
Occupation	S.T. Lee Professor of Business and Research Director at the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business
Employer	Columbia Business School
Known for	academic research on choice

Sheena Iyengar (born 1969) is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School ^[1][2][3] and the Research Director at the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business. She is known for her research on choice.^[1]

Biography[link]

Sheena Iyengar was born in Toronto, Canada in 1969. Her parents had emigrated there from Delhi, India. In 1972, Iyengar’s family moved to Flushing, Queens, where her father helped establish the first permanent Sikh temple; and in 1979, the family moved to Elmwood Park, New Jersey.^[1][4] Iyengar grew up in a bicultural environment, observing the tenets of Sikhism with her family but partaking in American culture outside of the home.^[4]

When Iyengar was three years old, she was diagnosed with a rare form of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease of retinal degeneration.^[4] By 6th grade, Iyengar had lost the ability to read, and by 11th grade, she had lost her sight entirely and could only perceive light. Iyengar’s life had also taken another turn in high school; when she was 13, her father died of a heart attack.^[4]

In Iyengar’s book, The Art of Choosing, she explains how these seemingly random events and external influences, which shaped her life, led her to become interested in choice:

"My parents had chosen to come to this country, but they had also chosen to hold on to as much of India as possible. They lived among other Sikhs, followed closely the tenets of their religion, and taught me the value of obedience. What to eat, wear, study, and later on, where to work and whom to marry—I was to allow these to be determined by the rules of Sikhism and by my family’s wishes. But in public school I learned that it was not only natural but desirable that I should make my own decisions. It was not a matter of cultural background or personality or abilities; it was simply what was true and right. For a blind Sikh girl otherwise subject to so many restrictions, this was a very powerful idea. I could have thought of my life as already written, which would have been more in line with my parents’ views. Or I could have thought of it as a series of accidents beyond my control, which was one way to account for my blindness and my father’s death. However, it seemed much more promising to think of it in terms of choice, in terms of what was still possible and what I could make happen." (Iyengar, 2010, pp. xi-xii).^[4]

In 1992, Sheena Iyengar graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of Business and a B.A. in psychology with a minor in English from the College of Arts and Sciences. She then earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University in 1997.^[1][2][3] The following year, her dissertation, “Choice and its Discontents,” which asks the question: are there circumstances in which people are better off when they have their choices limited or entirely removed, received the prestigious Best Dissertation Award for 1998 from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.^[1][2]

Academic career[link]

Iyengar's focal line of research concerns choosing, and she has been studying choice for two decades.^[5][6][7][8] This work, as well as her work on globalization, has earned Iyengar much recognition. In 2002, she was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Social Scientists for her work on cultural differences in decision making. Her research appears in academic journals of a wide range of disciplines such as economics, psychology, management, and marketing.^[1] Not only is her work acclaimed in academia, but also it has attracted attention in other venues, as well. Her research has been cited in such periodicals as Fortune and Time magazines, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as on National Public Radio and in books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. Iyengar has written a book, The Art of Choosing, which explores the mysteries of choice in everyday life.^[1]

Iyengar has taught courses in Management at Columbia Business School since 1998. Specifically, she has taught courses in Globalization, Leadership, Entrepreneurial Creativity, and Decision Making to MBAs, Executive MBAs, and Executives, including at the World Economics Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.^[1] In addition, her course on Leadership earned her an Innovation in the Teaching Curriculum award from Columbia Business School.^[1][2]

Sheena Iyengar is an Academic Member of the Behavioral Finance Forum, a Fellow at the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University, an Oversight Board Member at the ING Institute for Retirement Research, and an Institute Fellow at TIAA-CREF. She has previously been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and has received grants from such institutions as The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business, Citigroup Behavioral Sciences Research Council, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation.^[1]

Published works[link]

• Tragic Choices: Autonomy and Emotional Response to Medical Decisions
• The Mere Categorization Effect: How the Presence of Categories Increases Choosers' Perceptions of Assortment Variety and Outcome Satisfaction
• Gender Differences in Mate Selection: Evidence from a Speed Dating Experiment
• Doing Better but Feeling Worse: Looking for the "Best" Job Undermines Satisfaction
• How Much Choice is Too Much? Contributions to 401(k) Retirement Plans
• The Psychological Pleasure and Pain of Choosing: When People Prefer Choosing at the Cost of Subsequent Outcome Satisfaction
• When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?
• Rethinking the Value of Choice: A Cultural Perspective on Intrinsic Motivation
• Optimism and Fundamentalism
• Order in Product Customization Decisions: Evidence from Field Experiments
• Medium of Exchange Matters: What's Fair for Goods Is Unfair for Money
• The Art of Choosing (2010)

Awards and Honors[link]

Fellowships[link]

See also[link]

• Decision Theory
• Choice Overload
• Cultural identity
• Social Psychology

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sheena Iyengar's Homepage
• The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School
• Sheena Iyengar on "The Multiple Choice Problem" Youtube Playlist
• Sheena Iyengar discusses her book, The Art of Choosing Youtube Video
• Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing, TED Talk

Sarah Jessica Parker
Parker at the 2009 premiere of Wonderful World
Born	(1965-03-25) March 25, 1965 (age 47) Nelsonville, Ohio, United States
Occupation	Actress, producer
Years active	1974–present
Spouse	Matthew Broderick (1997–present)

Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and producer.

She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City (1998–2004), for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards. She played the same role in the 2008 feature film based on the show, Sex and the City: The Movie, and in its sequel, Sex and the City 2, which opened on May 26, 2010. Parker has also appeared in many other films.

Early life[link]

Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, the daughter of Barbara Parker (née Keck), a nursery school operator and teacher, and Stephen Parker, an entrepreneur and journalist.^[1][2] She was one of a total of eight children from her parents' marriage and her mother's second marriage (her full siblings include actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker). After her parents' divorce, her mother married Paul Forste, a truck driver and account executive who was a part of Parker's life from an early age.^[3] Parker's father, a native of Brooklyn, was of Eastern European Jewish background; his family's original surname was "Bar-Kahn" ("son of Kohen").^[2][4] Parker's mother was of English and German descent; through her mother, Parker is descended from Esther Elwell, one of the accused during the Salem witch trials.^[5][6] Parker has identified culturally and ethnically with her father's religion, Judaism, although she has had no religious training.^[4] She has said that even while her family lived in Cincinnati, her mother emulated a New York lifestyle.^[4]

As a young girl, Parker trained in singing and ballet, and was soon cast in the Broadway revival of William Archibald's The Innocents.^[7] Her family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and then to Dobbs Ferry, New York, near New York City, so that she could get specialized training. There, her mother and stepfather helped Parker develop her career as a child actress. In 1977, the family moved to the newly-opened planned community on Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, and later to Manhattan. The family later moved to Englewood, New Jersey, where Parker attended Dwight Morrow High School.^[8]

Parker attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati,^{[citation needed]} the School of American Ballet in New York City,^{[citation needed]} Dwight Morrow High School in New Jersey, and the Professional Children's School,^{[citation needed]} Hollywood High School in Los Angeles, California.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early acting career[link]

Parker and four siblings appeared in a production of The Sound of Music at the outdoor Municipal Theatre (Muny) in St. Louis, Missouri.^[9] She was selected for a role in the new 1977–81 Broadway musical Annie: first in the small role of "July" and then succeeding Andrea McArdle and Shelley Bruce in the lead role of the Depression-era orphan, beginning March 1979. Parker held the role for a year.

In 1982, Parker was cast as the co-lead of the CBS sitcom Square Pegs. The show lasted just one season, but Parker's performance, as a shy teen who showed hidden depths, was critically well-received. In the three years that followed, she was cast in four films: the most significant being Footloose in 1984 and 1984's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, co-starring Helen Hunt. In 1986, Parker appeared in the cult classic Flight of the Navigator, a Disney science fiction film.

By the early 1990s, Parker's career was gaining momentum. In 1991, she appeared in a supporting role in the romantic comedy L.A. Story; both the movie and her performance garnered positive reviews.^[7] The following year, she landed a starring role in the well-received film Honeymoon in Vegas, co-starring Nicolas Cage. Her 1993 role in the film Hocus Pocus was a higher grosser at the box office but received negative reviews. Also in 1993, she starred as a police diver opposite Bruce Willis in the film Striking Distance. The following year, she appeared opposite Johnny Depp in the critically acclaimed movie Ed Wood^[7] as Wood's girlfriend Dolores Fuller.