Nowadays consumers are faced with an explosive choice of products and services. The increase of the available choice can lead to consumer confusion (often called paradox of choice), that provokes consumer's stress, frustrations and paralysis during the decision making. Confusion overload is not experienced by all consumers, as it depends on the consumer's proneness to confusion and his decision making style, as well as other individual and situational factors. One of the decision making styles is called maximization decision making style, where consumer strives for the best possible decision. The results of a quantitative study confirmed a positive correlation between maximization and confusion overload. Confusion overload influences the use of different strategies, that consumer practices to reduce the confusion. On the basis of the empirical part of this diploma thesis and some older researches, it was found that, when challenged with confusion overload, consumers look for additional information about the products, they narrow down their choice set, postpone or entirely abandon purchasing decision.
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