Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice

Variety, Vice, and Virtue: How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice

Assortment size has been shown to influence whether consumers make a choice, but could it also influence what they choose? Five studies demonstrate that because choosing from larger assortments is often more difficult, it leads people to select options that are easier to justify. Virtues and utilitarian necessities are generally easier to justify than indulgences; consequently, choosing from la...

How Assortment Size Influences Option Choice

Assortment Size and Option Attractiveness in Consumer Choice Among Retailers

Vol. XLVI (June 2009), 410–420 410 © 2009, American Marketing Association ISSN: 0022-2437 (print), 1547-7193 (electronic) *Alexander Chernev is Associate Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (e-mail: ach@ northwestern.edu). Ryan Hamilton is Assistant Professor of Marketing, Goizueta Business School, Emory University (e-mail: ryan_hamilton@ bus.emory.edu)...

How Attribute Quantity Influences Option Choice

Products can be described by different numbers of attributes, but can the mere number of attributes presented across a choice set influence what type of options people choose? This article demonstrates that attribute numerosity tends to benefit certain types of options more than others and consequently has systematic effects on choice. Because attributes often serve as a heuristic cue for produ...

Vice-Virtue Bundles

We introduce a simple solution to help consumers manage choices between healthy and unhealthy food options: vice-virtue bundles. Vice-virtue bundles are item aggregates with varying proportions of both vice and virtue, holding overall quantity constant. Four studies compare choice and perceptions of differently composed vice-virtue bundles relative to one another and to pure vice and pure virtu...