Can Haptic Inputs Mitigate Choice Overload?

This paper investigates the effects of haptic inputs on consumers' preference for large assortments after selecting an option from different assortment sizes. Our experiments reveal that physically touching and imagining touching (i.e., haptic imagery), compared to the control (i.e., no-touch) condition, eliminate adverse effects caused by large assortments. A moderate, but not high, level of touch frequency is required to reduce perceived difficulty and increase preference for large assortments when being exposed to large (vs. small) assortments. These findings expand our current understanding of the literature on haptic and choice overload.