Choice overload is characterized by individuals experiencing a decrease in preference strength and satisfaction (Chemey, 2003) in conjunction with increases in disappointment and regret regarding a chosen option (Schwartz, 2000). Choice overload has been examined in a variety of situations, however choice overload has not been examined with individuals with developmental disabilities or during stimulus preference assessments. While extensive research has been conducted regarding stimulus preference assessments, no research has been conducted evaluating the most effective number of items to use during preference assessments. The purpose of the present study was to compare using six and 18 item arrays during a multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment, to evaluate the accuracy of both procedures with a reinforcer assessment, and to evaluate the behavior of participants for characteristics of choice overload during the preference and reinforcer assessments. The results of the present study suggest that the results between the six and 18 item preference assessments are strongly consistent; however the six item assessments overestimated the reinforcer efficacy of numerous items in comparison to the 18 item preference assessment. The results also suggest that two participants displayed characteristics associated with choice overload and that a certain level of cognitive functioning may be required for choice overload to occur.

As legalized gambling venues continue to emerge throughout the United States, the already present problem of pathological gambling is likely to evolve in to a great issue of social concern. The vast body of literature on the effects of choice and choice overload, or the experience of negative side effects due to large choice arrays, may further contribute to an understanding of gambling behavior and treatment. The current set of experiments sought to extend the previous literature on choice to a gambling context to expand the behavioral model of gambling. The purpose of Experiment I was to determine whether maximizers, or those who tend to carefully examine options, and satisficers, or those who choose with little deliberation, differ in terms of frequency of switching slot machines, a possible behavioral marker of maximization. The results demonstrated that maximizers switched among available slot machines significantly more frequently than satisficers. Experiment II investigated further links between gambling behavior and maximization. A significant correlation between maximization and outcomes of the Problem Gambling Severity Index were observed, suggesting that these phenomena are related. Experiment III tested the effects of an intervention requiring participants to make repeated choices as an abolishing operation on subsequent gambling behavior. Participants who repeatedly made choices gambled significantly fewer trials on slot machines when allowed to play freely compared to those who simply watched a gambling video. Overall, the literature on choice and the phenomena of maximization and choice overload add to the behavioral model of gambling by suggesting new relevant variables in the determination of gambling behavior.

Many researchers have studied the interaction between choice overload and purchase intention resulting in mixed and sometimes contradictory results. This study extended the current knowledge and examined how rurality (rural vs. urban/suburban) among millennial consumers influences choice overload and purchase intention when presented with extensive or limited options. Using both quantitative survey data and qualitative interviews, the author studied consumer experiences to understand choice overload and purchase intention better. Overall, some of the results suggest a statistical difference between rural and urban/suburban participants in their feelings of choice overload. However, many of the results were small and unlikely to be of practical significance. Additionally, the interviews were analyzed and multiple themes emerged, including possible factors that may support prior meta-analytic conclusions about the nuance of choice overload.

This thesis adds to the existing literature on the too-much-choice effect. The effect documents a range of negative consequences as a result of choosing from extensive choice sets, such as increased decision difficulty, increased deferment likelihood, and increased feelings of uncertainty, regret and dissatisfaction with chosen options. The research presented in this thesis investigates the effect of choice amount in the novel domain of volunteering, specifically which organisation to volunteer for. This is an experiential choice rather than the material choices typically studied. The first three field studies focussed on real volunteering recruitment ‘events’ to gain preliminary insight into this new context. Study 1 demonstrated that an opt-out request for future contact consent elicited the greatest compliance. Study 2 found that only around half of the students that had intended to volunteer at the beginning of a year had done so by the end, but for those that had done so, volunteering was a positive and beneficial experience. Study 3 demonstrated the effectiveness of volunteer ‘events’ for the recruitment of volunteers, despite there being an extensive number of organisations present. Five further studies used an experimental methodology and focussed on choosing from computer based choice sets to simulate online volunteer recruitment. Study 4 found evidence of the too-much-choice effect. The greater the number of options looked at on a real volunteering website, the greater was the likelihood of decision deferment. This was mediated by decision difficulty. Study 5 replicated these findings using a more controlled experimental design and hypothetical organisations. Studies 6, 7 and 8 investigated potential choice architectural moderators of the too-much-choice effect. Option categorisation facilitated students’ decisions but not non-students (Study 6), deferment likelihood was reduced if options were presented in a ‘box’ format rather than a ‘list’ format (Study 7) and option familiarity appeared to have no effects on decisions (Study 8). Overall, this research demonstrates that extensive choice can be problematic in the novel context of volunteering and it begins to investigate choice architectures that have the potential to help people deal with extensive choice. The limitations and implications of these findings in relation to volunteer recruitment are discussed as well as possible avenues for future research.

<p>One of the most frequent things we do as consumers is make purchase. We pay for a coffee or for food, we pay for necessities around the house, we even pay for one another, buying drinks or dinner for a friend every now and then. In today’s marketplace, the decision of whether to purchase is also coupled with the decision of how to make a purchase. Consumers have so many different methods to pay for their transactions. Can the way a consumer chooses to pay change the likelihood that s/he make a purchase? And then post-purchase, can the payment method used to pay for a purchase influence how connected individuals feel to that product, brand, or organization? Given that we sometimes pay for others (and vice versa), can the way we pay influence our interpersonal relationships?</p><p>In what follows, I argue that the way individuals pay, and specifically the pain associated with making a payment, can have a pervasive effect on their decision to make a purchase and how they feel post-transaction. Across three essays, I focus on how the pain of paying can influence the likelihood to purchase an item from a consideration set (Essay 1) and subsequently, how the pain of paying can influence post-transaction connection to a product, organization, or even to other people (Essay 2 and 3). Across field, laboratory, online, and archival methods, I find robust evidence that increasing the pain of paying may initially deter individuals from choosing. However, post-transaction, increasing the pain of payment may have an upside: individuals feel closer and more committed to a product that they purchased, organization that they donated to, and feel greater connection and rapport to who they spent their money on. However, I also demonstrate the boundary conditions of these findings. When individuals are spending money on something that is undesirable, such as paying for a competitor, increasing the pain of payment decreases interpersonal connection and rapport.</p> / Dissertation

Research in retirement planning has found that people are delaying investing in a retirement plan and are missing out on thousands of potential savings from not investing since 401(k)’s are protected against income taxes. This delay of investment could be occurring as a result of choice overload. The current study examined choice overload in the financial context of 401(k) retirement plans in order to find an efficient solution. Social influences and peer effects have been shown to increase retirement plan participation rates. Participants (n=119) were randomly assigned to a control condition or one of two social preferences conditions, one of which had a heavily skewed social preference while the other had relatively equal preferences. Participants were instructed to build a 401(k) and then were asked questions regarding their financial literacy and overload and satisfaction with their decisions. There was no significant effect of social preferences on overload or satisfaction. However, financial literacy was found to be a negative predictor of satisfaction.

A common belief is that the larger the variety of options, the better. However, humans have a limited cognitive capacity, which can lead to people experiencing choice overload (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). Limiting the number of options to reduce choice overload is not a feasible solution. While there have been studies in regards to minimising choice overload with a help of recommender systems, aspects of how the choice set is presented in the user interface received little attention. This study aimed to investigate three commonly used user interfaces (UI); a single-list, a grid and a multi-list. An online experiment was conducted to answer the research questions. Results from this study imply that the single-list UI performed the worst across chosen measures, and was most likely to cause choice overload among participants. Multi-list and grid UI reported better performance and were less likely to cause choice overload among participants.

This study aims to examine and observe the discourse around freedom within academia, morespecifically within research pertaining to the choice overload phenomenon. The study isqualitative in nature and would be best described as a discourse,- and ideology analysis. Thestudy observes the current discourse around choice overload and how the phenomenon ispresented and problematized. Furthermore the study aims to examine if there are anyideological influences in this area of research. The studies being analyzed are publishedbetween 2016 to the middle of 2018 and based around the keyword choice overload,. Theresults of this study show that recent research regarding choice overload is in overwhelmingmajority conducted by marketing and hence presented in a market-minded perspective. Thestudy also finds that there seems to exist an indication of two “perspectives” when it comes tothe researchers views on choice overload. In these study these perspectives are categorized byone having a more pragmatic, solution-oriented view in relation to the phenomenon and theother one being more sceptical to its existence at all. The conclusion brings mixed results,whereas while the study shows that there are prevalent tendencies to problematize and presentchoice overload from a profit seeking perspective as opposed to a general societal healthperspective, the controlled nature of the language used in research makes it hard to draw anyconcrete conclusions. The study ends on an encouraging note, leaving suggestions for furthermore in-depth research to contribute to this field of knowledge. / Denna studie syftar till att undersöka och observera diskursen kring valfrihet inom akademia,specifikt inom forskning kring fenomenet choice overload. Denna studie är kvalitativ till sinnatur och kan bäst beskrivas som en diskurs,- och ideologianalys. Studien observerardiskursen kring choice overload och hur fenomenet presenteras och problematiseras. Vidareämnar denna studie att examinera om det förekommer ideologiska strömningar inomforskningsfältet. De studier som analyseras är baserade kring nyckelordet choice overloadoch är publicerade mellan 2016 och första halvan av 2018. Resultaten av denna studie visaratt nylig forskning kring choice overload är dominerad av marknadsföring och därefterpresenterad ur ett marknadsekonomiskt perspektiv. Studien finner även att det tycks existeraen indikation av två olika “perspektiv” när det kommer till hur forskare ser på choiceoverload. I denna studie kategoriseras dessa perspektiv av att ena har en mer pragmatisk ochlösningsorienterad inställning gentemot fenomenet, medan det andra förhåller sig merskeptiska till fenomenets existens. Resultatet av studien är blandat, då fastän studien visar attdet finns tydliga tendenser att problematisera och presentera choice overload ur ettvinst-sökande perspektiv i motsats till ett folkhälso,- och samhällsperspektiv, så förhindrasstudien från att finna konkreta resultat på grund av det kontrollerade språket inom akademiskforskning och problematiken med allmän generalisering. Studien avslutas med förslag förvidare forskning för att bidra till kunskap kring ideologi inom akademia.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-06-01T13:54:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 planejamento_portfolio.pdf: 2983834 bytes, checksum: 3f3b3523fda84404f3af648b65221e56 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-01T13:54:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 planejamento_portfolio.pdf: 2983834 bytes, checksum: 3f3b3523fda84404f3af648b65221e56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-26 / Nenhuma / A sobrecarga de escolha é um fenômeno que trata das consequências da diversidade de opções na experiência de escolha do usuário. Pesquisas mostram que o aumento do número de opções causa consequências adversas à experiência de escolha, como diminuição do prazer e da satisfação com a escolha. Com base no mercado de venda direta de higiene e beleza, buscou-se compreender a experiência de escolha do usuário frente à diversidade de alternativas de produtos do segmento, como shampoo, condicionador e sabonete líquido. Dois experimentos foram realizados para entender a experiência do usuário: no primeiro (n=103) a quantidade de produtos foi manipulada através de diferentes cores; e, no segundo (n=96), a quantidade foi manipulada utilizando diferentes formas de embalagens. Ainda, um survey (n=101) foi aplicado para compreender alguns hábitos e preferências do consumidor de higiene e beleza. Como resultado destas pesquisas, foi encontrado o contrário do que apontam as pesquisas na área de sobrecarga de escolha: os usuários suportam a quantidade de opções (50% acima da média do mercado) e têm preferência por produtos específicos para seu uso. Os resultados obtidos, sobre a experiência de escolha do consumidor de higiene e beleza, dão subsídios para o planejamento de portfólio de produtos no segmento, um elemento estratégico do sistema-produto de uma empresa, na perspectiva do design estratégico. O planejamento de portfólio de produtos, com base na experiência de escolha do usuário, auxilia a tornar a experiência de compra positiva para o consumidor, ao mesmo tempo em que beneficia o produtor. / Choice overload is an effect related to great variety of options in user's choice experience. Other research efforts have shown that, when the number of options is increased, there occur adverse consequences to choice experience, such as decreased pleasure and decreased satisfaction. Based on the direct sale market for hygiene and beauty products, our aim was to understand user choice experience in relation to diversity of product alternatives for the shampoo, conditioner and liquid soap segments. Two experiments were conducted to understand user experience: in the first one (n = 103), the amount of products was manipulated through different colors; in the second one (n = 96), the amount was manipulated using different types of packaging. A survey (n = 101) was also applied to understand some habits and consumer preferences for hygiene and beauty products. As a result, it was found the opposite of other research efforts on choice overload: users support the amount of options (50% above the market average) and have a preference for specific products for their use. The results obtained on the consumer choice experience for the hygiene and beauty segment provide a basis for planning of product portfolios on this segment, a strategic product-system element of a company from the strategic design perspective. Planning the product portfolio based on user's choice experience helps creating a positive shopping experience for consumer and benefits the producer.

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-08-25T23:52:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeThorman.pdf: 3568080 bytes, checksum: 439643fd6254296bde70f45af9eb0ef5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-25T23:52:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeThorman.pdf: 3568080 bytes, checksum: 439643fd6254296bde70f45af9eb0ef5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Nenhuma / O presente estudo enfatizada a relevância ao design propiciada pela relação interdisciplinar entre os conceitos de sistema produto-serviço (PSS) e sobrecarga de escolha, salientando a satisfação do indivíduo como campo comum de trabalho entre os mesmos. O conceito de “PSS” trabalha produtos e serviços como parte de um sistema unificado, o qual também compreende outros aspectos como comunicação, distribuição, e atores. Já o conceito de “sobrecarga de escolha” se relaciona ao decréscimo na satisfação do indivíduo quando este realiza uma escolha a partir de um conjunto extenso de alternativas. A revisão de literatura acerca deste efeito sugere que o mesmo não se relaciona somente ao número de alternativas envolvidas na tarefa de escolha, mas também às distintas formas por meio das quais o indivíduo pode processar a informação – intuição e raciocínio. Deste modo, o presente estudo investiga o impacto destas formas de processamento da informação sobre o efeito de sobrecarga de escolha através de uma metodologia experimental. Para a coleta de dados, os participantes foram expostos a um conjunto de alternativas de um produto (mp3 player), na qual são manipuladas simultaneamente a quantia de objetos e características que os descrevem. Em adição, os participantes desenvolvem atividades que os levam a processar a tarefa decisória utilizando especificamente intuição ou raciocínio, com o intuito de comparar os resultados obtidos por cada sistema de processamento cognitivo. Os resultados do estudo apresentam que intuição e raciocínio evocam padrões diferentes de processamento da decisão, de maneira que o efeito de sobrecarga de escolha não é despertado unicamente a partir do aumento no número de alternativas envolvidas na tarefa decisória, mas também, na percepção do indivíduo acerca do evento de tomada de decisão. Assim, destaca-se que quando é utilizado o sistema intuitivo, a queda na satisfação do indivíduo se relaciona à elevação em aspectos posteriores à realização da escolha (frustração e arrependimento com a decisão tomada). Foi também revelado que o sistema de raciocíno, além de apresentar as mesmas correlações negativas da satisfação com o arrependimento e frustração com a decisão tomada, ainda correlaciona a queda na satisfação do indivíduo com aumentos na complexidade e sobrecarga percebidas acerca da tarefa decisória, aspectos passíveis de avaliação em um momento anterior à realização da escolha. Deste modo, conclui-se que a satisfação do indivíduo se correlaciona com variáveis distintas de acordo com o sistema de processamento utilizado no processo de julgamento e tomada de decisão. / The present study highlights the relevance to the design field provided by the interdisciplinary relationship between the concepts of product-service system (PSS) and choice overload, emphasizing the individual’s satisfaction as a common ground between both concepts. The PSS considers products and services as part of a unified system, which also includes other components such as communication, distribution, and other actors. The concept of choice overload relates to the decrease in satisfaction when a decision is made based on an extensive set of alternatives. The literature review suggests that the overload effect it is not only related to the number of alternatives involved in the choice task , but also to the different ways through which the individual can process information - intuition and reasoning. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of these forms of information processing information on the overload effect through an experimental method. In regards to data collection, the participants were exposed to a set of alternatives of a product (mp3 player), simultaneously manipulating the amount of products and also the characteristics that describe them. In addition, participants develop activities that lead to the specific usage of intuition or reasoning during the decision task, aiming to compare the results obtained by each system of cognitive processing. The results shows that intuition and reasoning evoke different patterns of processing that leads to the choice itself, thus the choice overload effect is not only activated due to an increase in the amount of alternatives involved in the decisionmaking task, but also on the individual's perception about the decision-making event. It is noteworthy that when the intuitive system is used, the individual’s satisfaction is negatively correlated to aspects assessed after the choice was made (frustration and regret). It was also revealed satisfaction through the reasoning system, besides having the same negative with frustration and regret, is also negatively correlated to the individual’s perceived complexity and burden towards the decision-making task (aspects that may be assessed prior to the decision moment).Therefore, it is concluded that satisfaction correlates with distinct variables according to the processing system utilized during the judgment and decisionmaking process.