• So many choices, so little to choose from.

  • Jam Experiments

  • Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 79(6), 995.

  • Jam tasting: experiments with different numbers of jams on display

    • People stopping to sample, 40% for 6 types, 60% for 24 types
    • of those who tasted the food will buy it, 30% for 6 types, 3% for 24 types

relevance

  • : Sheena Iyengar: Making Choices Easy | TED Talk

  • 401K Retirement Savings Plan

    • Number of funds to choose from varies by plan
    • If two funds, 75% subscription rate
    • If there are 60 funds, the subscription rate is 60
    • The more options available, the higher the tendency of subscribers to avoid stocks and equity funds.
  • When giving them multiple decisions, it is better to show them the choices in order from the least to the most popular, so that a smaller percentage will choose the standard setting.

    • Levav, Jonathan, et al. “Order in product customization decisions: Evidence from field experiments.” Journal of Political Economy 118.2 (2010): 274-299.
    • Levav, Jonathan, et al. “The effect of attribute order and variety on choice demotivation: a field experiment on German car buyers.” ACR North American Advances (2007).
    • 750 people who actually custom order a car are divided into two groups, with one group presented in order of most options and the other group presented in order of least options
    • Leverb: I think it’s because we surveyed people who really buy cars. We tried to replicate a similar experiment in our lab, but it didn’t work. The phenomenon of brain fatigue when you keep making decisions can only be seen when you are really making a choice.


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