Without commitment there is no satisfaction : Effect of preferences, decision field and level of commitment on simple consumer decisions
Abstract
This research aims to explore how decision field influences choice and resulting choice satisfaction. 215 participants chose from multiple snacks and evaluated decision complexity, subjective satisfaction and experience. Results show that minimizing commitment did not decrease satisfaction, but significantly decreased resulting experience (p<0.05).
This opens new research questions that should be further studied. This experiment failed to prove that non-equivalent option would significantly increase preferences for one of the equivalent options as previous research suggested (Ariely, 2009).
It seems that if original desirability of non-equivalent option is sufficiently high, it outweighs the desirability of equivalent options, although it increases choice complexity (p<0.05). No evidence was found that gratis option significantly gains desirability (Ariely, 2009).
In future research, it would be interesting to look for the tipping point where price outweighs original desirability.