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Reducing Choice Overload without Reducing Choices

Author

Listed:
  • Tibor Besedes

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Cary Deck

    (The University of Arkansas)

  • Sudipta Sarangi

    (Virginia Tech)

  • Mikhael Shor

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that a multitude of options can lead to choice overload, reducing decision quality. Through controlled experiments, we examine sequential choice architectures that enable the choice set to remain large while potentially reducing the effect of choice overload. A specific tournament-style architecture achieves this goal. An alternate architecture in which subjects compare each subset of options to the most preferred option encountered thus far fails to improve performance due to the status quo bias. Subject preferences over different choice architectures are negatively correlated with performance, suggesting that providing choice over architectures might reduce the quality of decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Tibor Besedes & Cary Deck & Sudipta Sarangi & Mikhael Shor, 2015. "Reducing Choice Overload without Reducing Choices," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 793-802, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:97:y:2015:i:4:p:793-802
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    Cited by:

    1. Shang Wu & Hazel Bateman & Ralph Stevens & Susan Thorp, 2022. "Flexible insurance for long‐term care: A study of stated preferences," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(3), pages 823-858, September.
    2. Jeffrey Carpenter & Emiliano Huet-Vaughn & Peter Hans Matthews & Andrea Robbett & Dustin Beckett & Julian Jamison, 2021. "Choice Architecture to Improve Financial Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(1), pages 102-118, March.
    3. Helmers, Christian & Krishnan, Pramila & Patnam, Manasa, 2019. "Attention and saliency on the internet: Evidence from an online recommendation system," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 216-242.
    4. Samek, Anya & Hur, Inkyoung & Kim, Sung-Hee & Yi, Ji Soo, 2016. "An experimental study of the decision process with interactive technology," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 20-32.
    5. Adriana Manolică & Andreea-Sînziana Guță & Teodora Roman & Lorin Mircea Dragăn, 2021. "Is Consumer Overchoice a Reason for Decision Paralysis?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Job Harms & S. Rosenkranz & M.W.J.L. Sanders, 2017. "Choice Complexity, Benchmarks and Costly Information," Working Papers 17-07, Utrecht School of Economics.
    7. Ortmann, Andreas & Ryvkin, Dmitry & Wilkening, Tom & Zhang, Jingjing, 2023. "Defaults and cognitive effort," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1-19.
    8. Lin, Lihui, 2021. "Does the procedure matter?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Mark Schneider & Cary Deck & Mikhael Shor & Tibor Besedeš & Sudipta Sarangi, 2019. "Optimizing Choice Architectures," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 16(1), pages 2-30, March.
    10. Florian Heiss & Daniel McFadden & Joachim Winter & Amelie Wuppermann & Bo Zhou, 2016. "Inattention and Switching Costs as Sources of Inertia in Medicare Part D," NBER Working Papers 22765, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Earl, Peter E. & Friesen, Lana & Shadforth, Christopher, 2019. "Elusive optima: A process tracing analysis of procedural rationality in mobile phone connection plan choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 303-322.
    12. Xinye Hu & Ofir Turel & Wanting Chen & Jia Shi & Qinghua He, 2023. "The effect of trait-state anxiety on choice overload: the mediating role of choice difficulty," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 50(2), pages 143-152, June.
    13. Sim, Jaeung & Park, Jea Gon & Cho, Daegon & Smith, Michael D. & Jung, Jaemin, 2022. "Bestseller lists and product discovery in the subscription-based market: Evidence from music streaming," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 550-567.
    14. Hurwitz, Abigail & Lahav, Eyal & Mugerman, Yevgeny, 2021. "“Financial less is more”: An experimental study of financial communication," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    15. Jason A. Aimone & Sheryl Ball & Brooks King-Casas, 2016. ""Nudging" Risky Decision-Making: A Note on the Causal Influence of Information Order," Working Papers e07-52, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Economics.
    16. Lana Friesen & Peter E. Earl, 2020. "An Experimental Analysis of Regulatory Interventions for Complex Pricing," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 1241-1266, January.
    17. Dellaert, B.G.C. & Baker, T. & Johnson, E.J., 2017. "Partitioning Sorted Sets: Overcoming Choice Overload while Maintaining Decision Quality," ERIM Report Series Research in Management 18-2, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    18. Malone, Trey & Lusk, Jayson L., 2017. "The excessive choice effect meets the market: A field experiment on craft beer choice," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 8-13.
    19. Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja & Kokot, Johanna & Vomhof, Markus & Wessling, Jens, 2014. "How Do Consumers Choose Health Insurance? – An Experiment on Heterogeneity in Attribute Tastes and Risk Preferences," Ruhr Economic Papers 537, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Benjamin M. Marx & Lesley J. Turner, 2019. "Student Loan Choice Overload," NBER Working Papers 25905, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Nerissa C. Brown & Brian T. Gale & Stephanie M. Grant, 2022. "How Do Disclosure Repetition and Interactivity Influence Investors’ Judgments?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1775-1811, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    choice architecture; choice overload; inertia; status quo bias; self-sorting; decision making; experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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