The Effect Of Option Set Size And One's Maximizing Tendency To Their Consuming Experiences-the Mediating Role Of Choice Closure

Nowadays,with the richness of material life and the wider application of network tools,there are more choices for people to make than ever before.However,more choices do not always mean more benefits for people who are purchasing.There are also negative effects for Consumers' decision-making experience and decision-making behavior which are brought by too many options.But the negative impact of this negative outcome of “too many options” is also different for different types of decision-makers who adapt different kinds of decision styles.Based on theories of maximizing tendency and choice overload,this study discussed the influence of ones' maximizing tendency and the size of option set on consumers' decision-making experience by questionnaire survey method and experimental method and examined the mediating role of choice closure.The research is divided into three parts: Study 1 studied the influence of option set size and individuals' maximizing tendency on consumers' decision-making experiences;Study 2,on the basis of study 1,further explored the mediating factor of this process——choice closure;study 3 further manipulated the level of choice closure to verify the relationship between choice closure and consumer decision-making experience.From the results,we have some conclusions as below:(1)Individual's maximizing tendency and the size of a option set they encounter tend to influence consumers' purchasing experience interactively: when individuals face a larger set of options,those with a higher level of maximizing tendency(also known as maximizer)are less satisfied than those with a lower level of maximizing tendency also known as satisficer).When individuals face a smaller set of options,there was no significant difference in decision-making experience for both maximisers and satisficers.(2)The effect of individual's tendency to maximize to consumers' purchasing experiences is indirectly achieved through choice closure.(3)Choice closure priming has an effect on the level of people's choice closure,those who undergo the priming show a significantly higher level of choice closure.(4)The level of choice closure affects the decision-making satisfaction of individuals in consumption,and those who are primed are more satisfied than those in the control group.