this is the more recent review and outlines a generally accepted view that - it depends. If decisions are complex and people are not confident, choice is harder and vice versa.
The "Paradox of Choice" stuff has always concerned me because I've seen it cut both ways in the real world. Sometimes more choice = reduction in conversion. Sometimes = no change. Sometimes = increase in conversion.
Turns out there is a meta-analysis (see link below).
I'm not an expert in reading research papers so not sure how rigorous this analysis is. Note the "more choice is better" in certain situations part of the study. Very interesting. Perhaps @kristen would add "more choice is better if you can easily filter and find" or somesuch.
"Although strong instances of choice overload have been reported in the past, direct replications and the results of our meta-analysis indicated that adverse effects due to an increase in the number of choice options are not very robust: The overall effect size in the meta-analysis was virtually zero. While the distribution of effect sizes could not be explained solely by chance, presumably much of the variance between studies was due to a few experiments reporting large positive and large negative effect sizes"
"The meta-analysis further confirmed that “more choice is better” with regard to consumption quantity and if decision makers had well-defined preferences prior to choice. There was also a slight publication bias such that unpublished and more recent experiments were somewhat less likely to support the choice overload hypothesis. Effect sizes did not depend on whether the choice was hypothetical or real or whether satisfaction or choice was the dependent variable"
this is the more recent review and outlines a generally accepted view that - it depends. If decisions are complex and people are not confident, choice is harder and vice versa.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ulf-Bockenholt/publication/265170803_Choice_Overload_A_Conceptual_Review_and_Meta-Analysis/links/59f1e791a6fdcc1dc7bb07f5/Choice-Overload-A-Conceptual-Review-and-Meta-Analysis.pdf
The "Paradox of Choice" stuff has always concerned me because I've seen it cut both ways in the real world. Sometimes more choice = reduction in conversion. Sometimes = no change. Sometimes = increase in conversion.
Turns out there is a meta-analysis (see link below).
I'm not an expert in reading research papers so not sure how rigorous this analysis is. Note the "more choice is better" in certain situations part of the study. Very interesting. Perhaps @kristen would add "more choice is better if you can easily filter and find" or somesuch.
https://scheibehenne.com/ScheibehenneGreifenederTodd2010.pdf
"Although strong instances of choice overload have been reported in the past, direct replications and the results of our meta-analysis indicated that adverse effects due to an increase in the number of choice options are not very robust: The overall effect size in the meta-analysis was virtually zero. While the distribution of effect sizes could not be explained solely by chance, presumably much of the variance between studies was due to a few experiments reporting large positive and large negative effect sizes"
"The meta-analysis further confirmed that “more choice is better” with regard to consumption quantity and if decision makers had well-defined preferences prior to choice. There was also a slight publication bias such that unpublished and more recent experiments were somewhat less likely to support the choice overload hypothesis. Effect sizes did not depend on whether the choice was hypothetical or real or whether satisfaction or choice was the dependent variable"