Choice, Psychological Ownership, and Option Valuation

Abstract

In the past few decades, there have been concerns of a possible “choice overload effect” in that the provision of more (vs. less) choice might decrease choice satisfaction as it increases the difficulty of selecting an option among many. However, beyond choice satisfaction, there are other outcomes of offering more choices worth investigating. We examine another potential outcome of offering more choices. The results from four experiments suggest that offering more choice increases the chooser's valuation of the chosen option, relative to offering less choice. This is because offering choice increases the chooser's psychological ownership of the chosen option, a premise derived from prior conceptualizations of choice as fostering control. Thus, we extend theoretical understanding of the consequences of offering choice beyond satisfaction, while at the same time offer implications for marketers interested in understanding the benefits—in addition to the potential harms—of offering choice for consumers.