To Downshift or Not to Downshift? Why People Make and don’t Make Decisions to Change their Lives

Abstract

A fundamental assumption about choice is that greater choice leads to greater happiness. Modern societies offer more choice than in the past, and are increasingly characterised by elastic and fluid social bonds — we are no longer defined by a clear sets of social ties which bind us to our life situation. We can choose our friends, geographic locality, and employment and, perhaps, our gender and that of our children, the shapes of our bodies, religious beliefs and lifestyles. We can, if we choose, radically alter the way we live, and might be expected to do so if our current life situation makes us unhappy. But many people do not, ‘choosing’, apparently, to remain in unsatisfying jobs with time stressed lives. However, some people do radically alter their way of living through a voluntary reduction in working time and income, in return for a slower pace of life and increased free time — a phenomenon popularly known as ‘downshifting’. We suggest that this phenomenon — the choices involved in radical lifestyle change — can tell us something about why people ‘choose’ not to change, even when their present lifestyle makes them unhappy.