THE CONSUMER INFORMATION OVERLOAD CONTROVERSY AND PUBLIC POLICY |
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| Authors: | Joel Rudd |
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| Institution: | JOEL RUDD is assistant professor of family and consumer studies at the University of New Hampshire. His research interests include consumer information and decision making, experimental symbolic interaction, and social cognition. He has contributed several articles and book chapters on these and related topics. |
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| Abstract: | It is widely believed that providing consumers with more product information produces "overload" and leads to confusion and poorer quality consumer decisions. The existence of a consumer information overload phenomenon has been used by marketers and others to argue against regulations and legislation mandating additional consumer information provision. The belief that a consumer information overload phenomenon exists is based largely on misinterpretations of research findings. The present paper reviews the consumer information overload research literature and concludes that existing research data support the contention that provision of more information, rather than producing overload, actually improves consumer decision making. Implications of the information overload research controversy for consumer policy makers are discussed. |
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