A Study of Choice Overload Measurement in Food Consumption

Consumers are presented with increasingly difficult choice tasks and are experiencing more choice overload during the decision-making process. Based on the emotion-imbued choice model and incorporating subjective state consequences into the framework of experienced utility, this research constructed a systematic scale to measure choice overload in several decision-making stages. This research conducted three experiments using liquid milk as a consumption product to test whether choice overload would be influenced by increasing the number of attributes, adding similar options, and information nudges, and whether this effect would be heterogeneous in consumer characteristics. Results indicate that more attributes and the addition of similar options would increase the perceived difficulty of choice and result in negative emotions, while information nudges might lessen choice overload and help consumers make decisions. Besides, consumers’ pursuit of maximization also determines their perceived choice overload; maximizers are more likely to experience choice overload than satisficers.