Recent research challenges the idea that greater choice is always desirable, showing that larger assortments can increase choice deferral and switching. The current research demonstrates that even when consumers make a purchase, the same item may generate lower satisfaction when chosen from a larger rather than a smaller assortment. The authors explain this effect in terms of an expectation-disconfirmation mechanism. When assortments are small, consumers have low expectations about their ability to match their preferences. As assortment sizes increase, so do consumers’ expectations of the degree of preference match they can achieve. Subsequently, consumers may experience greater negative expectation disconfirmation or less positive expectation disconfirmation when a chosen item comes from a larger rather than a smaller set. Either less positive or more negative disconfirmation leads to lower choice satisfaction. The results from three studies support this expectation-based process and establish this mechanism in addition to alternative explanations, such as choice overload.
AlbaJoseph, LynchJohn, WeitzBarton, JaniszewskiChris, LutzRichard, SawyerAlan, and WoodStacy, (1997), “Interactive Home Shopping: Consumer, Retailer, and Manufacturer Incentives to Participate in Electronic Marketplaces,”Journal of Marketing, 61(July), 38–53.
2.
BaumolWilliam J., and IdeEdward A., (1956), “Variety in Retailing,”Management Science, 3(1), 93–101.
3.
BenartziShlomo, and ThalerRichard, (2002), “How Much Is Investor Autonomy Worth?”Journal of Finance, 57(4), 1593–1616.
4.
BettmanJames, R., (1974), “A Threshold Model of Attribute Satisfaction Decisions,”Journal of Consumer Research, 1(2), 30–35.
5.
BettmanJames R., JohnsonEric J., and PayneJohn W., (1990), “A Componential Analysis of Cognitive Effort in Choice,”Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 45(1), 111–39.
6.
BettmanJames R., LuceMary Frances, and PayneJohn W., (1998), “Constructive Consumer Choice Processes,”Journal of Consumer Research, 25(3), 187–217.
7.
BoatwrightPeter, and NunesJoseph C., (2001), “Reducing Assortment: An Attribute-Based Approach,”Journal of Marketing, 65(July), 50–63.
8.
BottiSimona, and IyengarSheena S., (2004), “The Psychological Pleasure and Pain of Choosing: When People Prefer Choosing at the Cost of Subsequent Satisfaction,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(3), 312–26.
9.
BroniarczykSusan M., HoyerWayne D., and McAlisterLeigh, (1998), “Consumers’ Perceptions of the Assortment Offered in a Grocery Category: The Impact of Item Reduction,”Journal of Marketing Research, 35(May), 166–76.
10.
BülbülCenk, and MeyvisTom, (2006), “When Consumers Choose to Restrict Their Options: Anticipated Regret and Choice Set Size Preference,” working paper, Marketing Department, New York University.
11.
ChernevAlexander, (2003), “When More Is Less and Less Is More: The Role of Ideal Point Availability and Assortment in Consumer Choice,”Journal of Consumer Research, 30(September), 170–83.
12.
DharRavi, (1997), “Consumer Preference for a No-Choice Option,”Journal of Consumer Research, 24(2), 215–31.
13.
DiehlKristin, (2005), “When Two Rights Make a Wrong: Searching Too Much in Ordered Environments,”Journal of Marketing Research, 42(August), 313–22.
14.
DiehlKristin, KornishLaura J., and LynchJohn G.Jr., (2003), “Smart Agents: When Lower Search Costs for Quality Information Increase Price Sensitivity,”Journal of Consumer Research, 30(1), 56–71.
15.
DiehlKristin, and ZaubermanGal, (2005), “Searching Ordered Sets: Evaluations from Sequences Under Search,”Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 824–32.
16.
DrèzeXavier, HochStephen J., and PurkMary E., (1994), “Shelf Management and Space Elasticity,”Journal of Retailing, 70(4), 301–326.
17.
FitzsimonsGavan, J., (2000), “Consumer Response to Stockouts,”Journal of Consumer Research, 27(2), 249–66.
18.
GourvilleJohn T., and SomanDilip, (2005), “Overchoice and Assortment Type: When and Why Variety Backfires,”Marketing Science, 24(3), 382–95.
19.
GriffinJill G., and BroniarczykSusan M., (2010), “The Slippery Slope: The Impact of Feature Alignability on Search and Satisfaction,”Journal of Marketing Research, 47(April), 323–34.
20.
HochStephen J., BradlowEric T., and WansinkBrian, (1999), “The Variety of an Assortment,”Marketing Science, 18(4), 527–46.
21.
HochStephen J., and HaYoung-Won, (1986), “Consumer Learning: Advertising and the Ambiguity of Product Experience,”Journal of Consumer Research, 13(September), 221–33.
22.
HotellingHarold, (1929), “Stability in Competition,”Economic Journal, 39(March), 41–57.
23.
HuffmanCynthia, and KahnBarbara E., (1998), “Variety for Sale: Mass Customization or Mass Confusion?”Journal of Retailing, 74(4), 491–513.
24.
IyengarSheena S., HubermanGur, and JiangWei, (2004), “How Much Choice Is Too Much: Determinants of Individual Contributions in 401K Retirement Plans,” in Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance, MitchellOlivia S., and UtkusStephen P., eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 83–95.
25.
IyengarSheena S., and LepperMark R., (2000), “When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006.
26.
IyengarSheena S., WellsRachael E., and SchwartzBarry, (2006), “Doing Better but Feeling Worse,”Psychological Science, 17(2), 143–50.
27.
JacobyJacob, SpellerDonald E., and KohnCarol A., (1974), “Brand Choice Behavior as a Function of Information Load,”Journal of Marketing Research, 11(February), 63–69.
28.
KahnBarbara, E., (1995), “Consumer Variety-Seeking Among Goods and Services: An Integrative Review,”Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2(3), 139–48.
29.
KuksovDmitri, and Miguel Villas-BoasJ., (2010), “When More Alternatives Lead to Less Choice,”Marketing Science, forthcoming.
30.
LehmannDonald, R., (1998), “Customer Reactions to Variety: Too Much of a Good Thing?”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 26(1), 62–65.
31.
MalhotraNaresh, K., (1982), “Information Load and Consumer Decision Making,”Journal of Consumer Research, 8(March) 419–30.
32.
McAlisterLeigh, and PessemierEdgar, (1983), “Variety Seeking Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Review,”Journal of Consumer Research, 9(December), 311–21.
33.
MenonGeeta, and RaghubirPriya, (2003), “Ease of Retrieval as an Automatic Input in Judgments: A Mere-Accessibility Framework?”Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 230–43.
34.
Newman JosephW., and WerbelRichard A., (1973), “Multivariate Analysis of Brand Loyalty for Major Household Appliances,”Journal of Marketing Research, 10(November), 404–409.
NovemskyNathan, DharRavi, SchwarzNorbert, and SimonsonItamar, (2007), “Preference Fluency in Consumer Choice,”Journal of Marketing Research, 44(August), 347–56.
38.
OfirChezy, and SimonsonItamar, (2007), “The Effect of Stating Expectations on Customer Satisfaction and Shopping Experience,”Journal of Marketing Research, 44(February), 164–74.
39.
OliverRichard, L., (1977), “Effect of Expectation and Disconfirmation on Postexposure Product Evaluations: An Alternative Interpretation,”Journal of Applied Psychology, 62(4), 480–86.
40.
OliverRichard, L., (1996), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer.New York: McGraw-Hill.
41.
OliverRichard L., and WinerRussell S., (1987), “A Framework for the Formation and Structure of Consumer Expectations: A Review and Propositions,”Journal of Economic Psychology, 8(4), 469–99.
42.
PhamMichel Tuan, CohenJoel B., PracejusJohn W., and David HugesG., (2001), “Affect Monitoring and the Primacy of Feelings in Judgment,”Journal of Consumer Research, 28(September), 167–88.
43.
PratkanisAnthony R., and FarquharPeter H., (1992), “A Brief History of Research on Phantom Alternatives: Evidence for Seven Empirical Generalizations About Phantoms,”Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 13(1), 103–122.
44.
PreacherKristopher J., and HayesAndrew F., (2008), “Asymptotic and Resampling Strategies for Assessing and Comparing Indirect Effects in Multiple Mediator Models,”Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–91.
45.
RatnerRebecca K., KahnBarbara E., and KahnemanDaniel, (1999), “Choosing Less-Preferred Experiences for the Sake of Variety,”Journal of Consumer Research, 26(1), 1–15.
46.
SchmalenseeRichard, (1978), “Entry Deterrence in the Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry,”Bell Journal of Economics, 9(2), 305–327.
47.
SchwarzNorbert, and CloreGerald L., (1983), “Mood, Misattribution, and Judgments of Well-Being: Informative and Directive Functions of Affective States,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 513–23.
48.
SimonsonItamar, (1992), “The Influence of Anticipating Regret and Responsibility on Purchase Decisions,”Journal of Consumer Research, 19(1), 105–118.
49.
SwanJohn E., and Frederick TrawickI., (1981), “Disconfirmation of Expectations and Satisfaction with a Retail Service,”Journal of Retailing, 57(3), 49–67.
50.
ThompsonDebora V., HamiltonRebecca W., and RustRoland T., (2005), “Feature Fatigue: When Product Capabilities Become Too Much of a Good Thing,”Journal of Marketing Research, 42(November), 431–42.
51.
TverskyAmos, and ShafirEldar, (1992), “The Disjunction Effect in Choice Under Uncertainty,”Psychological Science, 3(5), 305–309.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
