Login | Register

Exploring Novel Antecedents and Consequences of Choice Deferral

Title:

Exploring Novel Antecedents and Consequences of Choice Deferral

Singh, Tanya (2023) Exploring Novel Antecedents and Consequences of Choice Deferral. PhD thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of Singh_PhD_F2022.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
Singh_PhD_F2022.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Spectrum Terms of Access.
8MB

Abstract

This dissertation explores novel antecedents and consequences of choice deferral. Choice deferral is a common consumer phenomenon wherein consumers put off making choices due to choice conflict during a decision task. In the first chapter, I summarize extant research in choice deferral and describe research in the related domains of procrastination and choice delay. Based on existing research, I propose a novel consequence of choice deferral. In chapter 2, I examine the impact of choice deferral on deferral on subsequent unrelated choice tasks. Across four studies, I find evidence for a novel “deferral momentum” effect, such that initial choice deferral begets subsequent choice deferral. I examine decision confidence as a potential mechanism of this effect and find evidence to support my predictions. Finally, in the chapter 3, I investigate how the degree of choice conflict on initial choice impacts subsequent choice deferral. Across four studies, I find that choice conflict can counterintuitively decrease incidence of choice deferral. I argue this occurs because a conflict mindset can facilitate evaluation of contrasting information and attributes, thus facilitating tradeoffs and reducing deferral. My dissertation aims to expand our understanding of how choice deferral and its determinants can impact subsequent choices. My findings have important implications, both for consumer behavior scholars and marketing practitioners.

Divisions:Concordia University > John Molson School of Business > Marketing
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Authors:Singh, Tanya
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:Ph. D.
Program:Business Administration (Marketing specialization)
Date:1 May 2023
Thesis Supervisor(s):Roux, Caroline
Keywords:Consumer Decision Making, Choice Deferral, Procrastination, Decision Avoidance, Choice Conflict, Sequential Choice
ID Code:990828
Deposited By: Tanya Singh
Deposited On:27 Oct 2022 14:19
Last Modified:01 May 2023 00:00

References:

Abraham, C., & Sheeran, P. (2003). Acting on intentions: The role of anticipated regret. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42(4), 495–511.
Adelman, G. (1987). Encyclopedia of neuroscience. Birkhäuser.
Anderson, C. J. (2003a). The psychology of doing nothing: Forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 139.
Anderson, C. J. (2003b). The psychology of doing nothing: Forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 139.
Baron, J., & Ritov, I. (2004). Omission bias, individual differences, and normality. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 94(2), 74–85.
Bearden, W. O., Hardesty, D. M., & Rose, R. L. (2001). Consumer self-confidence: Refinements in conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(1), 121–134.
Berger, J., Draganska, M., & Simonson, I. (2007). The influence of product variety on brand perception and choice. Marketing Science, 26(4), 460–472.
Berlyne, D. E. (1957). Conflict and choice time. British Journal of Psychology, 48(2), 106–118.
Bettman, J. R., Luce, M. F., & Payne, J. W. (1998). Constructive consumer choice processes. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(3), 187–217.
Chen, Y., Ma, X., & Pethtel, O. (2011). Age differences in trade-off decisions: Older adults prefer choice deferral. Psychology and Aging, 26(2), 269.
Chernev, A. (2003a). Product Assortment and Individual Decision Processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(1), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.151
Chernev, A. (2003b). When more is less and less is more: The role of ideal point availability and assortment in consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 170–183.
Chernev, A. (2005). Feature complementarity and assortment in choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 748–759.
Chernev, A., Böckenholt, U., & Goodman, J. (2015). Choice overload: A conceptual review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(2), 333–358.
Chun Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005). Rethinking procrastination: Positive effects of" active" procrastination behavior on attitudes and performance. The Journal of Social Psychology, 145(3), 245–264.
Dhar, R. (1996a). The effect of decision strategy on deciding to defer choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 9(4), 265–281.
Dhar, R. (1996b). The effect of decision strategy on deciding to defer choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 9(4), 265–281.
Dhar, R. (1997a). Consumer preference for a no-choice option. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(2), 215–231.
Dhar, R. (1997b). Consumer preference for a no-choice option. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(2), 215–231.
Dhar, R. (1997c). Context and task effects on choice deferral. Marketing Letters, 8(1), 119–130.
Dhar, R. (1997d). Context and task effects on choice deferral. Marketing Letters, 8(1), 119–130.
Dhar, R., & Nowlis, S. M. (1999a). The effect of time pressure on consumer choice deferral. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(4), 369–384.
Dhar, R., & Nowlis, S. M. (1999b). The effect of time pressure on consumer choice deferral. Journal of Consumer Research, 25(4), 369–384.
Dhar, R., & Sherman, S. J. (1996). The effect of common and unique features in consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 23(3), 193–203.
Dhar, R., & Simonson, I. (2003). The effect of forced choice on choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 40(2), 146–160.
Diederich, A. (2003). Decision making under conflict: Decision time as a measure of conflict strength. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(1), 167–176.
Diehl, K., & Poynor, C. (2010). Great expectations?! Assortment size, expectations, and satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(2), 312–322.
Ein‐Gar, D., Levontin, L., & Kogut, T. (2021). The Adverse Effect of Choice in Donation Decisions. Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Etkin, J., & Ghosh, A. P. (2018a). When being in a positive mood increases choice deferral. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(1), 208–225.
Etkin, J., & Ghosh, A. P. (2018b). When being in a positive mood increases choice deferral. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(1), 208–225.
Ferrari, J. R. (1991a). Self-handicapping by procrastinators: Protecting self-esteem, social-esteem, or both? Journal of Research in Personality, 25(3), 245–261.
Ferrari, J. R. (1991b). Self-handicapping by procrastinators: Protecting self-esteem, social-esteem, or both? Journal of Research in Personality, 25(3), 245–261.
Ferrari, J. R. (1994). Dysfunctional procrastination and its relationship with self-esteem, interpersonal dependency, and self-defeating behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 17(5), 673–679.
Ferrari, J. R. (2001a). Procrastination as self‐regulation failure of performance: Effects of cognitive load, self‐awareness, and time limits on ‘working best under pressure’. European Journal of Personality, 15(5), 391–406.
Ferrari, J. R. (2001b). Procrastination as self‐regulation failure of performance: Effects of cognitive load, self‐awareness, and time limits on ‘working best under pressure’. European Journal of Personality, 15(5), 391–406.
Ferrari, J. R., Keane, S. M., Wolfe, R. N., & Beck, B. L. (1998). The antecedents and consequences of academic excuse-making: Examining individual differences in procrastination. Research in Higher Education, 39(2), 199–215.
Frederick, S. (2002). Automated choice heuristics. In Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment. (pp. 548–558). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808098.032
Friedman, E. M. S., Savary, J., & Dhar, R. (2018). Apples, Oranges, and Erasers: The Effect of Considering Similar versus Dissimilar Alternatives on Purchase Decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(4), 725–742.
Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 453.
Garg, N., Inman, J. J., & Mittal, V. (2005). Incidental and task-related affect: A re-inquiry and extension of the influence of affect on choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 32(1), 154–159.
Gourville, J. T., & Soman, D. (2005). Overchoice and assortment type: When and why variety backfires. Marketing Science, 24(3), 382–395.
Greenleaf, E. A., & Lehmann, D. R. (1995a). Reasons for substantial delay in consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research, 22(2), 186–199.
Greenleaf, E. A., & Lehmann, D. R. (1995b). Reasons for substantial delay in consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research, 22(2), 186–199.
Heilman, M. E., & Toffler, B. L. (1976). Reacting to reactance: An interpersonal interpretation of the need for freedom. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 12(6), 519–529.
Hellén, K., & Sääksjärvi, M. (2011). Is consumer self-confidence a stable phenomenon? The effect of mood on self-confidence dimensions. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 10(3), 223–243.
Ho, M. R. (2020). Investigating Metacognitive Fluency as a Judgment Cue in Choice Overload.
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995.
Jessup, R. K., Veinott, E. S., Todd, P. M., & Busemeyer, J. R. (2009). Leaving the store empty‐handed: Testing explanations for the too‐much‐choice effect using decision field theory. Psychology & Marketing, 26(3), 299–320.
Kahn, B. E., & Wansink, B. (2004). The influence of assortment structure on perceived variety and consumption quantities. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(4), 519–533.
Kiesler, C. A. (1966). Conflict and number of choice alternatives. Psychological Reports, 18(2), 603–610.
Kim, H. (2013). How variety-seeking versus inertial tendency influences the effectiveness of immediate versus delayed promotions. Journal of Marketing Research, 50(3), 416–426.
Kleiman, T., & Enisman, M. (2018). The conflict mindset: How internal conflicts affect self‐regulation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(5), e12387.
Kleiman, T., & Hassin, R. R. (2011). Non-conscious goal conflicts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(3), 521–532.
Kleiman, T., & Hassin, R. R. (2013). When conflicts are good: Nonconscious goal conflicts reduce confirmatory thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(3), 374.
Kumar, P. (2004). The effects of social comparison on inaction inertia. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 95(2), 175–185.
Li, X., Ye, Q., & Yang, G. (2017). The lack of dominance and choice deferral: Choosing to defer to cope with the feeling of being out of control. The Journal of Social Psychology, 157(6), 754–765.
Lin, C.-H., & Wu, P.-H. (2005). How to deal with conflicts? The effect of consumers’ subjective time pressure on product attitude judgment and choice. Journal of American Academy of Business, 6(1), 219–224.
Liu, H.-H., & Chou, H.-Y. (2020). Effects of comparability of promotions on inaction inertia. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Luce, M. F. (1998). Choosing to avoid: Coping with negatively emotion-laden consumer decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 409–433.
Luce, M. F., Bettman, J. R., & Payne, J. W. (1997). Choice processing in emotionally difficult decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23(2), 384.
M Affonso, F., & Sela, A. (2019). Beyond Striving: On Maximizing, Choice Disfluency, and Regulatory Fit. ACR North American Advances.
Macan, T. H., Shahani, C., Dipboye, R. L., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College students’ time management: Correlations with academic performance and stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 760.
Markman, A. B., & Medin, D. L. (1995). Similarity and alignment in choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 63(2), 117–130.
Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2005). Aging and motivated cognition: The positivity effect in attention and memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(10), 496–502.
Mourali, M., Yang, Z., Pons, F., & Hassay, D. (2018). Consumer power and choice deferral: The role of anticipated regret. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35(1), 81–99.
Nagpal, A., Khare, A., Chowdhury, T., Labrecque, L. I., & Pandit, A. (2011). The impact of the amount of available information on decision delay: The role of common features. Marketing Letters, 22(4), 405–421.
Nardini, G., & Sela, A. (2019). When self‐customization backfires: The role of a maximizing mindset. Psychology & Marketing, 36(7), 730–741.
Nelson, L. D., & Morrison, E. L. (2005). The symptoms of resource scarcity: Judgments of food and finances influence preferences for potential partners. Psychological Science, 16(2), 167–173.
Novemsky, N., Dhar, R., Schwarz, N., & Simonson, I. (2007). Preference fluency in choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 44(3), 347–356.
Parfenova, A., & Romashova, S. (2019). The role of procrastination in students’ consumer behavior. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy.
Payne, J. W., Bettman, J. R., & Johnson, E. J. (1988). Adaptive strategy selection in decision making. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 14(3), 534.
Popovich, D., & Hamilton, R. (2020). Intermediate Choice Lists: How Product Attributes Influence Purchase Likelihood in a Self-Imposed Delay. Journal of Retailing.
Rains, S. A. (2013). The nature of psychological reactance revisited: A meta-analytic review. Human Communication Research, 39(1), 47–73.
Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1992). Status-quo and omission biases. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 5(1), 49–61.
Savary, J., Kleiman, T., Hassin, R. R., & Dhar, R. (2015). Positive consequences of conflict on decision making: When a conflict mindset facilitates choice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(1), 1.
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409–425.
Scher, S. J., & Ferrari, J. R. (2000). The recall of completed and noncompleted tasks through daily logs to measure procrastination. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 255.
Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is less.
Senecal, C., Koestner, R., & Vallerand, R. J. (1995). Self-regulation and academic procrastination. The Journal of Social Psychology, 135(5), 607–619.
Shah, A. M., & Wolford, G. (2007). Buying behavior as a function of parametric variation of number of choices. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE-CAMBRIDGE-, 18(5), 369.
Slovic, P. (1995). The construction of preference. American Psychologist, 50(5), 364.
Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(4), 503.
Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling. Psychological Science, 8(6), 454–458.
Tversky, A., & Shafir, E. (1992a). Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision. Psychological Science, 3(6), 358–361.
Tversky, A., & Shafir, E. (1992b). Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision. Psychological Science, 3(6), 358–361.
Tykocinski, O. E., & Pittman, T. S. (1998). The consequences of doing nothing: Inaction inertia as avoidance of anticipated counterfactual regret. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(3), 607.
Tykocinski, O. E., & Pittman, T. S. (2001a). Product aversion following a missed opportunity: Price contrast or avoidance of anticipated regret? Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(3), 149–156.
Tykocinski, O. E., & Pittman, T. S. (2001b). Product aversion following a missed opportunity: Price contrast or avoidance of anticipated regret? Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(3), 149–156.
Tykocinski, O. E., Pittman, T. S., & Tuttle, E. E. (1995). Inaction inertia: Foregoing future benefits as a result of an initial failure to act. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(5), 793.
Tykocinski, O., Israel, R., & Pittman, T. S. (2004). Inaction Inertia in the Stock Market 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(6), 1166–1175.
Van Putten, M., Zeelenberg, M., & Van Dijk, E. (2009a). Dealing with missed opportunities: Action vs. State orientation moderates inaction inertia. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 808–815.
Van Putten, M., Zeelenberg, M., & Van Dijk, E. (2009b). Dealing with missed opportunities: Action vs. State orientation moderates inaction inertia. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 808–815.
Weber, E. U., Böckenholt, U., Hilton, D. J., & Wallace, B. (2000). Confidence judgments as expressions of experienced decision conflict. Risk, Decision and Policy, 5(1), 69-100.
Wernerfelt, B. (1995). A rational reconstruction of the compromise effect: Using market data to infer utilities. Journal of Consumer Research, 21(4), 627–633.
White, C. M., & Hoffrage, U. (2009). Testing the tyranny of too much choice against the allure of more choice. Psychology & Marketing, 26(3), 280–298.
Wong, K. F. E., & Kwong, J. Y. Y. (2007). The role of anticipated regret in escalation of commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(2), 545.
Zakay, D. (1985). Post-decisional confidence and conflict experienced in a choice process. Acta Psychologica, 58(1), 75-80.
Zeelenberg, M. (1999). Anticipated regret, expected feedback and behavioral decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12(2), 93–106.
Zeelenberg, M., Nijstad, B. A., van Putten, M., & Van Dijk, E. (2006). Inaction inertia, regret, and valuation: A closer look. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 101(1), 89–104.
Zeelenberg, M., & van Putten, M. (2005). The dark side of discounts: An inaction inertia perspective on the post‐promotion dip. Psychology & Marketing, 22(8), 611–622.
Zuckerman, M., Porac, J., Lathin, D., & Deci, E. L. (1978). On the importance of self-determination for intrinsically-motivated behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4(3), 443–446.
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top