The Influence Of Indecision On Selection Overload And Its Mechanism

With the development of commodity economy and spreading of Internet platforms,the consumer market is segmented with a variety of commodities and categories emerge in a great diversity stream in various forms through various channels constantly.The impact of such a bulk of information and choice may make consumers less satisfied with their choices,accompanied by negative experiences such as regret,anxiety and delay of choice,which is the choice overload effect.Some studies have explored the factors affecting selection overload from the perspectives of cognition,emotion and individual difference characteristics,but the relationship with choice overload and indecision which is an idiosyncrasy and individual Character has not been paid attention to.In view of this,this article is aimed at the basic of individual differences of choice overload research perspective,discussing the indecisive the individual characteristics of choice and its mechanism for the first time,on the basis of this,further discussing the influence of two respectively accountability(for process vs.for outcome)and their levels play a regulatory role in indecision and choice overload relations.This study consists of three experiments.Experiment 1 uses scale test to manipulate indecision,preliminarily discusses the influence of indecision on choice overload,and the mediating role of decision difficulty in the relationship between the two.In experiment 2,the factor responsible for decision-making process is introduced to explore the moderating effect of different levels of process accountability on the relationship between indecision and choice overload.In experiment 3,the factor of accountability for decision outcome is introduced to explore the moderating effect of different levels of accountability on the relationship between indecision and choice overload.The main research results are as follows:(1)compared with the low-indecisive individuals,the high-indecisive individuals is more likely to be affected by the choice overload effect.(2)decision difficulty plays a mediating role in the relationship of indecision on choice overload.(3)the level of process accountability moderates the relationship between indecision and choice overload.At the low level of process accountability,highindecisive individuals are more likely to have reaction of choice overload.At the high level of process accountability,the choice overload effect is not significant.(4)the level of outcome accountability regulates the relationship between indecision and choice overload.Under the condition of low outcome accountability level,high-indecisive individuals are more like to be influenced by choice overload.At a high level of outcome accountability,choice overload is come into being in the lowindecisive individuals.Combined with these experimental results,this study suggests that compared with the low-indecisive individuals,the choice overload effect is more likely occur from the high-indecisive individuals,and the difficulty of decision-making can partly explain this effect.Furthermore,the different levels of process accountability and outcome accountability regulating the relationship between indecision and choice overload.