Is More Always Better?

Our tendency to require more options in the hope of making a better decision has promoted an environment in which choice overload impacts decisions negatively. Recent research by Yun et al. (2019) has explored the use of a variety of measures such as eye-tracking and emotional activity in the brain to inform branding and marketing strategies. This research has contradicted the assumption that more is always better. The attention to ‘variety’ over the attention to ‘bias’ has placed many brands in the constant process of producing more, not necessarily making what they have better or retaining their loyal consumers. The inherent biases that are present in every choice made, paired with the comfort of a brand or product predicts choices more accurately than questionnaires regarding those choices. Further, blood flow measurements during decision-making tasks produced greater responses in areas known to generate memory recall and act as primary complex decision-making centres. Thus, it is important to understand the relationship the consumer has with the brand, not as a isolated behaviour, but as a process of reducing ambiguity and sustaining familiarity within the choice framework. An individual can lie to a sheet of paper, but, beauty may actually be in the eye of the beholder.