We Choose Things We Spend More Time Looking At

Article: How people decide when they have so many choices
Source: Ohio State University, via ScienceDaily
Published: April 8, 2021

Researchers in psychology and economics conducted a study using eye-tracking technology to investigate how people decide when given many options. They found that people tended to choose items, snacks in this case, that they spent more time looking at, sometimes even over snacks that they rated more highly. This study in particular involved 49 participants, who were tasked with choosing a snack from a total of 80 snacks shown on a computer screen in sets of varying numbers from 9 to 36 items. One finding was a peripheral screening process that depended on the items' location and how much they were liked. Results showed that participants didn't look carefully at all the items before making a choice, but instead avoided looking directly at snacks they don't really like. This peripheral screening only happens when there are many options presented, as compared to a binary choice. Another finding correlated final choice with the amount of time spent looking at the chosen snack. People would look through the items, often going back and forth among them, until one item stood out from the others, often the item they looked at the most. Though this is a small study, the findings are interesting in connecting decision-making with duration of visual input.

My rating of this study: ⭐

Thomas AW, Molter F, Krajbich I. "Uncovering the computational mechanisms underlying many-alternative choice." eLife. 10:e57012. 6 April 2021. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.57012