Interactive Restructuring: Implications For Decision Processes and Outcomes

Abstract

To help consumers deal with increasing amounts of information, many online marketers offer tools that allow consumers to interactively restructure decision environments, such as the ability to sort on a particular attribute or eliminate particular alternatives. The authors propose that the use of restructuring tools changes consumers' decision processes but that effects on decision quality depend on choice context. Three experiments show that consumers are adaptive in their use of restructuring tools, engage in different decision processes in the presence of such tools, and change their decision strategies after using restructuring tools. The presence of sorting tools increases decision quality when attribute correlations are positive but not when attributes are negatively correlated. When attributes are negatively correlated, the ability to sort can lower decision quality when elimination tools are unavailable but increase decision quality when elimination tools are available. However, when attributes are positively correlated, the ability to sort improves decision quality regardless of the availability of elimination tools.

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