When More Is Less and Less Is More: The Role of Ideal Point Availability and Assortment in Consumer Choice
Alexander Chernev challenges the belief that more choice is always better and argues that choosing from a large assortment can produce weaker preferences. He identifies ideal point availability, whether the shopper's ideal option is on offer, as a moderator of how assortment size affects choice. With a large assortment, having the ideal point available makes the choice simpler and strengthens the preference for the option chosen. With a smaller assortment the effect reverses and preference weakens. Four experiments support the account. The abstract does not say how many people took part or how large the effects were.
Alexander Chernev challenges the belief that more choice is always better and argues that choosing from a large assortment can produce weaker preferences. He identifies ideal point availability, whether the shopper's ideal option is on offer, as a moderator of how assortment size affects choice. With a large assortment, having the ideal point available makes the choice simpler and strengthens the preference for the option chosen. With a smaller assortment the effect reverses and preference weakens. Four experiments support the account. The abstract does not say how many people took part or how large the effects were.
Written from the publisher abstract page read 2026-10-22 (Oxford University Press).
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Chernev, A. (2003). When More Is Less and Less Is More: The Role of Ideal Point Availability and Assortment in Consumer Choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 170-183. doi:10.1086/376808