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Chicago, IL, USA. As human beings, we use categories to organize the details of a complex world. We experience a certain comfort in the convenience and predictability of categories. That seems to work until somone else comes along with their own category for us that we don't like. Well, the other person got it wrong: we don't fit into that category, or do we?
Is it possible that comfort alone is a justification for categorization? Out in the real world of daily choices, most of us have stood in a supermarket aisle, overwhelmed with the array of choices. New research suggests those choices are easier if the options are categorized.
The Mere Categorization Effect: How the Presence of Categories Increases Choosers’ Perceptions of Assortment Variety and Outcome Satisfaction. Cassie Mogilner, Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar. Journal of Consumer Research. August 2008. Vol. 35. doi: 10.1086 / 588698. ISSN: 0093-5301/2008/3502-0002.
The findings appear in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR). The authors demonstrate an interesting phenomenon called the “mere categorization effect,” where consumers are happier with their choices if their options are categorized, even if the categories are meaningless.
Authors Cassie Mogilner (Stanford University), Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar (both from Columbia University) say that “People confronted with highly categorized large selections are happier with their decisions because they experience a sense of self-determination as a result of perceiving differences among the available options.”
In one study, participants chose magazines from different displays, some that were categorized and some that were not. Those who were asked to choose a magazine they weren’t familiar with tended to be more satisfied with their choices if they came from categorized selections.
In another study, people at a food court were randomly selected to choose coffee from several menus. The coffee options were either categorized or uncategorized. “Consumers who chose a coffee flavor from a menu divided into seemingly meaningless categories such as Categories A, B, and C were just as happy as those who chose from meaningful categories such as ‘Mild,’ ‘Dark Roast,’ and ‘Nutty.’”
When participants were already quite familiar with the items they were selecting, they didn’t need to rely on categories to pick what they wanted, and were less susceptible to the mere categorization effect, the authors found.
“Although it is assumed the size of a selection is more important to the consumer than the number of categories, the findings of this investigation reveal the opposite to be true,” write the authors.
“Categorization can benefit retailers by providing them with an alternative to stocking additional volumes of goods. Categorization can also alleviate marketers’ and consumers’ desire for ever-increasing choices by enabling consumers to discover variety, experience self-determination, and obtain satisfaction simply by highlighting the variety already available.”
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and Time Distribution Services contributed funds and resources for the studies in this investigation.
Afiliations. Cassie Mogilner: marketing PhD candidate at Stanford University, Graduate School of Business; Tamar Rudnick: research assistant at Columbia University, Graduate School of Business; Sheena Iyengar: professor of management, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business.
The Mere Categorization Effect: How the Presence of Categories Increases Choosers’ Perceptions of Assortment Variety and Outcome Satisfaction. Cassie Mogilner, Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar. Journal of Consumer Research. August 2008. Vol. 35. doi: 10.1086 / 588698. ISSN: 0093-5301/2008/3502-0002.
Abstract
What is the effect of option categorization on choosers' satisfaction? A combination of field and laboratory experiments reveals that the mere presence of categories, irrespective of their content, positively influences the satisfaction of choosers who are unfamiliar with the choice domain. This “mere categorization effect” is driven by a greater number of categories signaling greater variety among the available options, which allows for a sense of self-determination from choosing. This effect, however, is attenuated for choosers who are familiar with the choice domain, who do not rely on the presence of categories to perceive the variety available.
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Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
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