Decision time as a function of the number and complexity of equally attractive alternatives.

Hendrick, Clyde; Mills, Judson; Kiesler, Charles A.

doi:10.1037/h0025526

Cited by 46 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…On the one hand, it might be expected that people would find a decision under limited time to be stressful and difficult because they do not have enough time to process information about each alternative and compare them with other alternatives. This may be especially likely if there are a large number of unfamiliar options, and if the dimensions on which the options are to be compared are complex (Hendrick, Mills, & Kiesler, 1968). A person's resultant uncertainty over whether he or she has chosen the best option available might then lead to a heightened sense of regret (e.g., "I chose option A, but option B, C, or D might have been even better.")…”

Section: Decision Time As a Possible Moderatormentioning

confidence: 95%

Testing the boundaries of the choice overload phenomenon: The effect of number of options and time pressure on decision difficulty and satisfaction

Haynes

2009

Psychology and Marketing

183

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The number of alternatives available to people in many day-to-day decisions has greatly increased in Western societies. The present research sought to build upon recent research suggesting that having large numbers of alternatives can sometimes have negative consequences for individuals. In the present experiment, participants were presented with descriptions of either 3 or 10 prizes and asked to choose one, for which they were to be entered in a drawing. The number of alternatives was manipulated in conjunction with the amount of time people were allotted to make a decision (limited vs. extended decision time). Following their decisions, participants completed measures of decision-related difficulty, task enjoyment, satisfaction, and regret. Participants given a limited amount of time to choose with a larger set of alternatives found their decisions to be more difficult and frustrating than did participants in the other conditions. The larger set of alternatives led to less satisfaction, but not less regret, with people's decisions. Implications for research on the choice overload phenomenon are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Decision Time As a Possible Moderatormentioning

confidence: 95%

Testing the boundaries of the choice overload phenomenon: The effect of number of options and time pressure on decision difficulty and satisfaction

Haynes

2009

Psychology and Marketing

183

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If the decision is taking too long relative to the payoff magnitude, then people may also leave empty-handed. Humans are adaptive decision makers who sometimes consider opportunity costs associated with a given decision and consequently alter their choice behavior (Fasolo et al, 2009;Hendrick, Mills, & Kiesler, 1968;Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1988;Yates, 2003). For instance, individuals may give themselves a fixed amount of time in which to make a decision, an allotment that can also depend on the type of decision and its importance.…”

Section: Time Outmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaving the store empty‐handed: Testing explanations for the too‐much‐choice effect using decision field theory

Jessup

Veinott

Todd

et al. 2009

Psychology and Marketing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Economic theories of choice suggest that more options are better, and people should prefer choosing from among more options to find their most valued alternative. But in an intriguing counter-example, Iyengar and Lepper (2000) observed that while people were attracted to more options while shopping, the larger set size increased the likelihood that they would leave the store empty-handed. Surprisingly, this too-much-choice effect has not been consistently observed in situations where it would be expected (e.g., Chernev, 2003; Scheibehenne, 2008). This paper describes boundary conditions for the too-much-choice effect that were determined by evaluating three different psychological explanations within a unified theoretical framework, decision field theory (Busemeyer & Townsend, 1993). The effect of environmental structure on choice was also tested by varying the distribution of quality in the option sets between low variance (roughly uniform) and high variance (exponential distribution). Based on these simulations, two explanations were identified that differentially predicted the too-much-choice effect: avoiding choice when the most preferred option changes too often, or when time

show abstract

“…Using these simpler heuristics helps to save cognitive resources and recover (Hadjimarcou and Hu 1999;Hockey 1997). For instance, individuals in complex choice situations may not even try to compare alternatives (Hendrick, Mills, and Kiesler 1968) or may ignore information by ''tuning it out'' (Jacoby, Speller, and Kohn Berning 1974, p. 40), as when they focus on the size of monthly installments and ignore interest rates when deciding on a mortgage. This evidence suggests that the relationship between perceived service complexity and customer cognitive capacity will not be steadily negative and linear.…”

Section: Perceived Service Complexity and Cognitive Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Complex Role of Complexity

Mikolon

Kolberg

Haumann

et al. 2015

Journal of Service Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During professional service encounters, integrating customers into the process of service provision is both important and challenging, as the complexity of professional services can impair value creation at the service provider–customer interface. This study addresses this problem by examining how service complexity impacts customer cognitive capacity and finally important marketing outcomes. Through an examination of 310 interactions between service providers and customers of a retail bank, this study shows that customers’ cognitive capacity is drastically reduced at moderate levels of perceived complexity. Subsequently, a lack of cognitive capacity decreases customer satisfaction with the encounter and loyalty intentions toward the company, two important drivers of company profitability. Results further show that service providers’ ability to adapt to the specific nature of the encounter helps customers to conserve cognitive capacity. This study hence contributes to service literature by emphasizing the central role of perceived service complexity and establishing the importance of customers’ cognitive capacity in professional service encounters. From a managerial perspective, this study underlines the importance of decreasing service complexity to avoid the negative consequences of mentally overtaxing customers and shows how service providers can effectively use adaptive selling to manage customers’ cognitive capacity at the service provider–customer interface.

show abstract

Decision time as a function of the number and complexity of equally attractive alternatives.

Cited by 46 publications

References 4 publications

Testing the boundaries of the choice overload phenomenon: The effect of number of options and time pressure on decision difficulty and satisfaction

Testing the boundaries of the choice overload phenomenon: The effect of number of options and time pressure on decision difficulty and satisfaction

Leaving the store empty‐handed: Testing explanations for the too‐much‐choice effect using decision field theory

The Complex Role of Complexity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About