How often do people feel like they have too few versus too many options? Just how ubiquitous is the problem of choice overload compared to choice deprivation? And are experiences of overload and deprivation, and their impact on satisfaction, universal?įirst, we aimed to understand whether the dominating focus of research on choice overload in comparison to choice deprivation reflects the actual frequency with which consumers face these two states in their natural environments.
All this with the aim to increase customer satisfaction and to prevent people from leaving empty-handed because they are too overwhelmed.īecause there is so much emphasis on overload rather than deprivation, we wanted to take a step back and empirically examine several questions about choice overload that, perhaps surprisingly, have been overlooked or taken for granted: Just how ubiquitous is the problem of choice overload compared to choice deprivation? Is having too many choices (versus too few) really the greater problem for consumers? And are experiences of overload and deprivation, and their impact on satisfaction, universal? Indeed, based on the findings from choice overload research, several Fortune 500 companies, prominent organizations, and governments decided to shrink their product lines and limit the breadth of their offerings to simplify the choice for their customers. Managers, marketers, and policymakers design product lines, spearhead advertising campaigns, and consider new policies through the lens of preventing overload.
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Choice overload has even achieved a cultural influence that is rare for scientific ideas, earning mention in sources as varied as long-running TV drama Grey’s Anatomy and Torrey Peters’s bestselling novel Detransition, Baby.Ĭhoice overload pervades decision-making research as well, where, given the focus on overload versus deprivation, one might assume that having too much choice has become one of the most common problems plaguing consumers today. How often, for instance, does a seemingly simple trip to the grocery store become overwhelming when we face aisle after aisle of options? And that’s not to mention the impossible burden of sorting through limitless products when shopping online or choosing a home to buy that meets all our criteria. In a recent study with over 7,000 participants from six countries, we found that choice deprivation, not choice overload, is the most common consumer experience in both trivial and highly consequential domains.įor many of us, the phenomenon of choice overload resonates with our everyday experiences of decision-making.
And choice deprivation isn’t just more common-it’s also more harmful to choice satisfaction than overload. In a recent study with over 7,000 participants from six countries, we found that choice deprivation-a feeling of not having enough to choose from-not choice overload is the most common consumer experience in both trivial and highly consequential domains. Yet the story of how the number of choices we have affects our decision-making is about to take another turn. Over the past few decades, a large body of research has repeatedly shown that when people experience choice overload-when they face more options than they desire-they can experience a wide range of negative outcomes, from frustration and confusion to regret, dissatisfaction, and even choice paralysis. Yesterday’s conventional wisdom no longer seems so conventional today.
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And, if any of the additional options didn’t appeal to us, we were free to ignore them. A larger assortment of alternatives, so conventional wisdom went, gave each of us a better shot at finding something that better satisfied our preferences.
It ran against cultural narratives-especially in the United States-and classic economic theory that assumed having more options was always better than having fewer. A few decades ago, the idea that there could ever be too much choice was, for some, a controversial claim.
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