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PEOPLE ARE LIKELY to make costly mistakes when over-complicated product descriptions force them to think about too many things at once, a new study has found.
The ESRI research showed people struggled to identify good-value deals once they were forced to grapple with two or more factors, regardless of their educational backgrounds.
The findings are the first to emerge from the ESRI’s Price Lab, which was set up to conduct experiments on what Irish consumers are capable of understanding.
For the study, the lab conducted 10 separate experiments that each tested a different aspect of consumer behaviour. The number of people who participated in these experiments varied between two dozen and more than 60.
Experiments
The experiments all varied. One consisted of participants being asked the value of a ‘golden egg’. People were shown eggs of a certain size and ‘texture’ that equated to a certain value, and then had to guess how much different eggs were worth based on previous examples.
Researchers found that participants were able to figure out single-attribute differences relatively well, such as if one egg was bigger than another.
However, they found it much more difficult when price was introduced to the mix and they had to identify how much different-sized eggs were worth.
The ESRI said that the findings imply that consumers “are likely to struggle to choose well in markets with products consisting of multiple important attributes that must all be factored in when making a choice”.
Performance
The report said that people with “high levels of numeracy and educational attainment” performed slightly better than those without, but added that the improvement “was small”.
Even the best performers could not integrate all of the product information efficiently – they became substantially more likely to make mistakes.
“We also found that both the high level of imprecision and systematic bias were not reduced substantially by giving people substantial practice and opportunities to learn – any improvements were slow and incremental.”
The findings suggest that consumers can benefit if product ranges and descriptions are kept simple.
However, when companies market products in an unnecessarily complex fashion, with multiple characteristics and price components, consumers will be more likely to make mistakes.
The think-tank said that a range of measures, like price comparison websites or standardised product information, could be used to help consumers make better choices.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and originally published on Fora, a new business publication for Irish startups and SMEs.
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I hate when you’re checking the price of something on a supermarket shelf and all of the labels have a price per kg and then the product you’re looking at has price per Each or Pack. You have to pick it up, put on your reading glasses, try to find the weight and work it out from there. Very time consuming and irritating and ALL of the supermarkets do it!
Em Ní,, I have a very simple solution to dealing with price per kg and the weight on products different, I just leave it there, could not be bothered dealing with it, if price is not clear it does not make it into shopping trolley, simple
Hold on, just buy the cheaper per KG product….the size is not really an issue, unless it is an issue for you for whatever reason.
Half the time people couldn’t be bothered or just don’t have time. And if you have kids with you, forget about it. All you’ll save are a few coppers and you’d be far better off trying this survey out on expensive items like meat. Then, they can tell the difference.
Irish consumers are no longer penny wise and pound foolish. They just couldn’t be bothered going from shop to shop to save 1 euro like their mothers use to do years ago. They’ve figured out life is too short, ad it costs more on petrol then you save.
I think Irish consumers have copped on to more or less everything since the crash.
Anyone else don’t really care, hate everything about supermarket shopping and just want to get out of there as fast as humanly possible while interacting as little with other humans as they can?
If you struggle with the shopping, watching a few episodes of Dale Winton’s Supermarket Sweep will help matters….
“How over-complicated products baffle people in making bad choices at the supermarket.”
How could an egg be over-complicated?
Private companies indulging in capitalism. Who’d have thought it?
True… would you rather live in a communist world with one government sanctioned version of every product.
Choice, diversity and technological advancements in product development is an effect of the open marketplace.
“would you rather live in a communist world with one government sanctioned version of every product.”
No. It sounds awful. Like Tesco Budget food. Eurgh!
On a related point Tesco Value pack foods don’t make any money…They exist to create the illusion of value. They don’t want you to buy them, they want to you too look at them and think you can afford better. But still feel you’re getting good value by shopping there because a cheaper option exists.
Hence why the packaging is so plain/ugly. It would cost nothing to put them in a more attractive box/bag but they actively try to make them look unattractive.
Nothing wrong with tesco value lager Damocles my old friend
If you knew me you would know that that remark is an insult to me.
I often see stuff in supermarkets where the price of the smaller pack size is better value but people still take the bigger pack as they assume it will be better value
have your say