Commentary on Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, and Todd<break></break>Choice Overload: Is There Anything to It?

Can there ever be too many options? We argue that because choice overload has multiple antecedents, simply searching for a main effect across all conditions and a single "sufficient" condition that is likely to solely predict this effect is not informative. Moreover, because prior research has documented multiple instances in which an abundance of options leads to choice overload, the interesting question is not whether choice overload occurs but when it occurs. The answer to this question is unlikely to stem from testing for the presence of a single main effect using the traditional meta-analytic approach. Instead, research would benefit from a theory-based meta-analysis that tests the validity of a conceptual model of choice overload capturing the underlying psychological processes. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..