All the cues we cannot see: How reward-driven distractors render consumers insensitive to assortment complexity
研究发现，当存在奖励驱动的干扰物时，消费者对品类复杂性的反应消失，不再因品类复杂而选择边缘产品，这对零售布局有启示。
• Varying assortment complexity impacts consumer choice behavior. • The presence of reward-driven distractors inhibits the impact of assortment complexity on choice. • The absence of reward-driven distractors results in responsiveness to assortment complexity. • Complex assortments lead to choices located further from the center. • Non-complex assortments lead to choices located closer to the center. Consumers face assortments in the retail environment that are more and more complex. This research extends the current literature on location-based choice behavior by demonstrating how varying assortment complexity impacts consumer choice behavior while shopping and how the presence or absence of reward-driven distractors (cues that promise a reward yet are unrelated to the choice task) modulate that choice process. We find that consumers tend to choose products closer to the center of an assortment when facing non-complex assortments. At the same time, they shift their choice towards the edge when selecting products from complex assortments. However, we only observe these effects in the absence of reward-driven distractors. When present, assortment complexity fails to steer consumers into diverging product locations. We discuss how our findings might inform retail practice.