Asserting your mind: Interruptions extremize consumer choices

Abstract

AbstractInterruptions prevail in the retail environment, especially during consumer decision‐making. However, scant research has examined whether and how interruptions that suspend decisions affect consumer choices. We posit that interruptions heighten the consumers' preference certainty, which leads to a choice extremity effect—consumers choose their preferred products even more and their unpreferred products even less. Six experiments provide convergent evidence for the choice extremity effect and the underlying process. Study 1a shows that interruptions lead to choice extremity with a vice product (i.e., chips). Study 1b confirms the effect in the context of incentive‐compatible choices. Study 2 replicates the choice extremity effect with a virtue product (i.e., yogurts). Study 3 further tests the robustness of the effect with a decision‐related interruption. Study 4 shows that preference certainty mediates the effect of interruptions on choice extremity and rules out the level of arousal and task involvement as alternative accounts. Using a moderation approach, Study 5 shows that the choice extremity effect disappears when consumers have high self‐concept clarity. The present study contributes to research on interruptions, preference certainty, and consumer choices and provides implications for marketers.