The effect of incomplete information on the compromise effect

Abstract

Most research on the compromise effect focuses on how consumers make their decisions in a complete information scenario; however, consumers generally lack sufficient information when they make purchase decisions. This research aims to explore the compromise effect with incomplete information. Three studies were conducted to examine the research hypotheses. The main findings was that consumers are more likely to choose the middle option when they have incomplete information than when they have complete information. Further, the compromise effect decreases when consumers can choose to defer their decision in an incomplete information scenario. Finally, the compromise effect decreases when consumers are asked to infer missing attribute values from the incomplete information. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]