A third option while shopping helps

It has been shown that decision making is simplified when a consumer actually considers a third, less attractive option.

A stop in a shop! But, can8217;t decide which one to buy: The brown blazer or the black jacket? Fret not, for a new study has finally come up with a solution 8211; consider a third option, a red sweater, for instance.

A team, led by an Indian-origin researcher Akshay Rao of University of Minnesota, has shown that decision making is simplified when a consumer actually considers a third, less attractive option.

8220;In some ways, it is quite straightforward. When a consumer is faced with a choice, the presence of a relatively unattractive option improves the choice share of the most similar, better item,8221; said Rao.

Researchers have based their findings on an analysis of the brains of a group of shoppers who volunteered for the study, the 8216;ScienceDaily8217; reported.

The volunteers had their brains scanned while they made choices between several sets of equally appealing options as well as choice sets that included a third, somewhat less attractive option.

Overall, the presence of the extra, 8220;just okay8221; possibility systematically increased preference for the better options.

The fMRI scans showed that when making a choice between only two, equally preferred options; subjects tended to display irritation because of the difficulty of the choice process. The presence of the third option made the choice process easier and relatively more pleasurable.

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8220;The technical evidence for our conclusion is quite clear, based on the imaging data. When considering three options, our 8216;buyers8217; displayed a decrease in activation of the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with negative emotions.

8220;Seemingly, subjects were using simple heuristics 8211; short-cuts or decision rules 8211; rather than a more complex evaluation process, when they were evaluating three-item choice sets,8221; Rao said.

The study is to appear in an upcoming issue of the 8216;Journal of Marketing Research8217;.