How Assortment Size Influence Consumer Self-control

With the development of the society and the improvement of people’s life, we arefacing too many options to choose every day. Supermarkets with thousands of productsand ever-growing assortments sometimes drive people crazy. There are many factorsinfluence consumer choice on vice or virtue. In this thesis, we discuss that how assortmentsize influence consumer self-control and get in-depth study of the dimensions ofpsychological distance from the perspective of construal level theory.People are always tending to pursuing variety, but choice overload suggested that anincrease in the number of options to choose from may lead to some adverse consequencessuch as a decrease in the motion to choose or the satisfaction with the final chosen option.We found strong instances of choice overload in three studies: people are more willing tocontrol themselves when facing large assortment comparing to small one. Consumersoften purchase products and services for future consumption or for other people, forexample, a person may purchase a ticket today for a concert that will be held next week. Insituation in which purchase precedes consumption or purchasing not for oneself or insomewhere far away from here, it will arouse different construal levels. We have alsotestified that how psychological distance moderate the relationship between assortmentsize and consumer choice.