Can There Ever Be Too Many Options? A Meta-Analytic Review of Choice Overload
Abstract
The choice overload hypothesis states that an increase in the number of options to choose from may lead to adverse consequences such as a decrease in the motivation to choose or the satisfaction with the finally chosen option. A number of studies found strong instances of choice overload in the lab and in the field, but others found no such effects or found that more choices may instead facilitate choice and increase satisfaction. In a meta-analysis of 63 conditions from 50 published and unpublished experiments (N = 5,036), we found a mean effect size of virtually zero but considerable variance between studies. While further analyses indicated several potentially important preconditions for choice overload, no sufficient conditions could be identified. However, some idiosyncratic moderators proposed in single studies may still explain when and why choice overload reliably occurs; we review these studies and identify possible directions for future research. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Consumer Research.
Volume (Year): 37 (2010)
Issue (Month): 3 (October)
Pages: 409-425
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Web page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Lauren S. Carroll & Mathew P. White & Sabine Pahl, 2011. "The impact of excess choice on deferment of decisions to volunteer," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 6(7), pages 629-637, October.
- Arne Roets & Barry Schwartz & Yanjun Guan, 2012. "The tyranny of choice: a cross-cultural investigation of maximizing-satisfising effects on well-being," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 7(6), pages 689-704, November.
- Justin M. Weinhardt & Brendan J. Morse & Janna Chimeli, 2012. "An item response theory and factor analytic examination of two prominent maximizing tendency scales," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 7(5), pages 644-658, September.
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