(Download) (Epub) Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding
the Value of Choice
By Cass R. Sunstein
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
