Premium
An Empirical Investigation into the Excessive‐Choice Effect
Author(s) -
Arunachalam Bharath,
Henneberry Shida R.,
Lusk Jayson L.,
Norwood F. Bailey
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2009.01260.x
Subject(s) - replicate , common value auction , set (abstract data type) , economics , choice set , econometrics , psychology , personality , microeconomics , empirical research , social psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , programming language
Recent marketing and psychological studies have shown that more choice does not always benefit consumers. This excessive‐choice effect (ECE) is examined empirically using food items in four experiments. The first experiment investigates whether people would voluntarily reduce their choice‐set size. The second seeks to replicate previous experimental results. The third and fourth experiments employ nonhypothetical Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak (BDM) soda auctions and hypothetical ground beef choice experiments to further detect the prevalence of the ECE in alternative settings and explore the role of personality in decision tasks. Results suggest the ECE exists, but is less prevalent than previous studies suggest.