Mixing It Up: Unsystematic Product Arrangements Promote the Choice of Unfamiliar Products

Abstract

This research examines how the unsystematic (vs. systematic) spatial arrangement of a set of alternatives affects consumers’ product choices. The key hypothesis is that an unsystematic product arrangement—in which an assortment consisting of several alternatives is arranged in an apparently arbitrary manner—causes greater perceptual disfluency, which in turn triggers more extensive exploratory product search, ultimately promoting the choice of unfamiliar products. This sequence of effects is particularly pronounced when consumers do not have a strong prior preference for specific alternatives in the assortment. Evidence from five studies, including a large-scale field experiment, provides support for this theorizing across various display formats and product domains. The findings advance our understanding of how the spatial arrangement of a product assortment influences consumer choice, and they shed light on the psychological mechanism that governs this effect.