Agents that reduce work and information overload
Communications of the ACM
A scalable comparison-shopping agent for the World-Wide Web
AGENTS '97 Proceedings of the first international conference on Autonomous agents
Computer
Evaluating the Impact of Dss, Cognitive Effort, and Incentives on Strategy Selection
Information Systems Research
Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers
Management Science
Management Science
On the Depth and Dynamics of Online Search Behavior
Management Science
Influence of Query-Based Decision Aids on Consumer Decision Making in Electronic Commerce
Information Resources Management Journal
Competitive Shopbots-Mediated Markets
ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation
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Consumers who use electronic decision aids such as comparison-shopping agents may be overwhelmed by the amount of choice information available to them, leading to an inability to choose or dissatisfaction with the ultimate choice, a state of "choice overload." Two experiments were designed to test the choice overload hypothesis. Eight choice tasks of different sizes were presented to subjects. By observing the decision quality, decision time, and decision confidence, we confirmed our hypothesis that choice overload exists when the comparison matrix exceeds a certain size (24 choices and 10 attributes for each choice in this research). Subjects were then given different combinations of decision-making tools (sorting and short-listing) and conditions (refreshing of information) to deal with the same choice task within the choice overload range obtained from the initial experiment. The use of both decision-making tools unexpectedly required more decision-making effort and resulted in less decision satisfaction than when only one decision-making tool was provided. We believe these findings are relevant to the future development of electronic decision aids. Further research is needed in this direction to extend our understanding of decision-making in electronic decision aids mediated environment.