Cognitive and Affective Consequences of Information and Choice Overload

When interviewed in 1992 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Nobel laureate Herbert Simon described a paradox at the heart of living in an economy that made every effort to design and produce ever more “choice alternatives” but that simultaneously allocated very little energy to encouraging people to devote the attention and time actually required to choose. He gave the example of a decision to buy a new house, commenting: “Before you even start the choice process, somebody has presented you with this, and this, and this house” (UBS, 1992). The overabundance of alternatives was lamented by Simon in 1992, when computing power was slower. It is all the more alarming in the modern and constantly connected world, which now has the internet, smartphones, apps, and tablets— all used to make a plethora of decisions every day. Nowadays, people receive information from ever- increasing and often simultaneous sources. The average US resident consumer views about 3,000 advertisements every day (Kardes, Cline, & Cronley, 2011) and while in the 1970s to the 1990s grocery stores in the United States carried around 7,000– 8,000 items, the variety has increased to 40,000– 50,000 items nowadays (Jacoby et al., 1974a; Malito, 2017), including around 285 varieties of cookies and 275 types of cereal (Schwartz & Ward, 2004). The explosion of choice is not limited to retail either and has begun to permeate even people’s personal lives. A speed- dating event organized by China’s Communist Youth League in 2017 was attended by about 5,000 young single people (Shim, 2017). And in a world where the internet increases an individual’s access to information, it seems being surrounded by an overwhelming amount of information every day has become the new norm. The aim of this chapter is to examine this state of affairs. What is information and choice overload, and what are the cognitive and emotional consequences of this overload? Classical economics and psychology have argued that increased information and choice are often desirable and lead to better outcomes (Steiner, 1970; Zuckerman, Porac, Lathin & Deci, 1978; Walton & Berkowitz, 1979; Rolls et al., 1981; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Loewenstein, 1999; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Kahn & Wansink, 2004). However, theories of bounded and adaptive rationality posit the opposite (Simon, 1957 1991;Gigerenzer & Selten, 2002) and have been supported by a large body of research. Extensive information and choice can be costly, demotivating, and unsatisfying (Miller, 1956; Newell & Simon, 1972; Jacoby, 1974; Malhotra, 1982; Iyengar & Lepper, 2000; Schwartz, 2004; Reutskaja & Hogarth, 2009; Grant & Schwartz, 2011; Reutskaja, Nagel, Camerer, Rangel, 2018). They can result in what Schwartz (2000) has called a “tyranny of freedom.” However, using less information and making decisions based on less information can lead to higher- quality outcomes. (For a review, see Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011.)