Talk:Overchoice/Archives/2015

Changes to Consider

We are psychology students participating in the Association for Psychological Science’s Wikipedia Initiative. These are our proposed improvements.

I. We would like to restructure the organization of the Wikipedia page so that the overall summary is a thorough explanation of the phenomenon of overchoice, initially in terms of a psychological process. The first section will be a summary of overchoice, as well as its definition. Currently this page is focused on business applications of overchoice and is missing critical information. We propose starting the page by describing overchoice in a psychological context. When making decisions, we tend to take the option that will lead to the greatest amount of reward (Chung, Vonwinterfeldt, & Luce, 1994). Finding the option that will reap the greatest reward becomes increasingly difficult with the number of options available. Shah and Wolford (2007) found that more choices did not lead to following through with a behavior and Iyengar and Lepper (2000) found that increased choice sets lead to regret and dissatisfaction with the decision. Following that, we would synthesize the already present information, as well as expand on overchoice and its effects within consumerism.

II. We want to also include information about the psychological process that occurs and provide examples (that are not strictly related to business) in another section. This section will describe that overchoice can be observed as an inverted U shape (Shah & Wolford, 2007). First more choices lead to more satisfaction, but as amount of choices increases it then peaks and individuals will feel more pressure, confusion, and potentially dissatisfaction with their choice. Although larger choice sets can be initially appealing, smaller choice sets lead to increased satisfaction and reduced regret. Iyengar and Lepper (2000) found that overchoice could result from the perception of lack of time to adequately make a decision with the many options available. Examples of overchoice include increased college options, career options, and perspective individuals to date.

III. We would also like to expand on the psychological outcomes of overchoice and specifically address regret and cognitive dissonance. Too many choices lead to regret and dissatisfaction after reaching the peak of effective choices. When a person has too many choices and makes the decision quickly, they feel a cognitive tension between the choice made and other potential options. Despite the felt tension, decisions from large choice sets in a small period of time can still be good decision. The effects of overchoice can be reduced by increasing time, or educating others that decisions made in a short amount of time can be equally good as decisions made with larger quantities of time (Inbar & Hanko, 2011). This section would have its own heading.

Britclarke (talk) 12:12, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

New Study helps identify moderating factors

There's a new study that identifies four factors which moderate choice overload: choice set complexity, decision task difficulty, preference uncertainty, and decision goal.

Alexander Chernev, Ulf Böckenholt, Joseph Goodman Corrigendum to “Choice overload: A conceptual review and meta-analysis” [J Consum Psychol 22 (2015) 333–358] Journal of Consumer Psychology, Available online 27 July 2015 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740814000916

-Reagle (talk) 11:32, 1 December 2015 (UTC)