The Effect of Time Pressure on Consumer Choice Deferral

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of time pressure on choice deferral. Recent research suggests that the likelihood of deferral is contingent on the ease of making the selection decision (which option to choose) as well as the overall attractiveness of the selected alternative. We focus on how time pressure systematically impacts choice deferral by increasing the use of noncompensatory decision rules in the selection decision and by increasing the relative emphasis placed on the unique features in the deferral decision (whether to choose). Consistent with the hypotheses, we find over a series of five studies that time pressure (1) decreases choice deferral when choice involves high conflict but not when conflict is low, (2) reduces the impact of shared features on choice deferral, and (3) decreases choice deferral for sets with common bad and unique good features (approach-approach conflict) but not for sets with common good and unique bad features (avoidance-avoidance conflict). We further show that greater attention to the unique features is not a general property of decision making under time pressure but rather a consequence of the primacy of the selection decision over the deferral decision. Consistent with this premise, time pressure did not decrease the relative attention paid to common features when the task was described as purely a deferral decision. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.