When is more really more? The effect of brands on choice overload in adolescents

Abstract

Purpose Research on choice overload with adult participants has shown that the presence of a brand significantly mitigates the phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether these findings can be expanded to a population of adolescents, where it has already been shown that choice overload occurs in a similar way as adults. Design/methodology/approach Studies 1 and 2 aim to test whether the presence of a brand name mitigates the adverse consequences of choice overload in adolescents. In line with prior research on choice overload, in both studies, the authors compared between-subjects differences in the levels of reported dissatisfaction, difficulty and regret in a choice condition where adolescents chose among either 6 or 24 options associated with brand names and in another choice condition where adolescents chose among the same 6 or 24 options but not associated with brand names. Findings This paper presents evidence from two studies that when facing either a large or a small amount of choice options that are associated with brand names, choice overload disappears among adolescents. Conversely, when no brands are associated to the choice options, adolescents report choice overload, that is a greater dissatisfaction, difficulties and regret with larger (versus smaller) assortments. Practical implications Prior research on choice overload has led to recommendations that marketers and other choice architects should simply reduce choice options or assortments to improve consumers’ satisfaction. However, our finding suggests that this recommendation may be invalidated when brands are present, at least for certain age groups. Adolescents cope indeed very well with large assortments of branded products. Originality/value The research adds to the existing understanding of choice overload, demonstrating that the brand is a moderator of the phenomenon for adolescents, who currently represent a large portion of the market. A second important contribution of this work is that it extends prior research on choice overload to real-world consumer scenarios, where consumers choose among products with a brand, rather than among products described only by technical characteristics or nutritional values, as in classical studies on choice overload.

On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Choice

“…Results demonstrated that participants were experiencing choice overload only in this latter condition, whereas in the condition in which the same phones were associated to brands, participants deal well with large assortments. The same findings have been replicated with a population of adolescents (Misuraca et al, 2021a).…”

“…A further important moderator of choice overload is the presence of brand names. As recently demonstrated by researchers in psychology and consumer behavior, choice overload occurs only when options are not associated with brands, whereas it appears when the same choice options are presented without any brand names (Misuraca et al 2019;Misuraca et al, 2021a). In one of these experiments, adult participants had to make a choice among either 6 or 24 different mobile phones, described along six different technical characteristics (e.g., battery duration, camera resolution, etc).…”

Can We Do Better Next Time? Italians’ Response to the COVID-19 Emergency through a Heuristics and Biases Lens

“…Another way to help people act more rationally and, thus, to increase their willingness to adhere to COVID-19 preventive behaviors is the use of clear and effective communication, which takes into consideration the limitations of human cognition [ 69 ]. In particular, communication should avoid information and choice overload [ 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Communication should be simple, and it should illustrate what people should do and not do, in a way that it is easy to understand for everyone.…”

Prosocial priming and bystander effect in an online context

“…In our opinion, the most interesting focus of our study concerns the elicitation of prosocial priming in an online context, such as e-mail. Most research on priming in an online context has been carried out mainly in marketing (Smith and Wheeldon, 2001;Misuraca et al, 2019Misuraca et al, , 2021aDennis et al, 2020;Tanford et al, 2020). We do not know of any study investigating the impact of priming on bystander apathy in the online context.…”