The Paradox of Choice
Put out twenty-four kinds of jam instead of six and fewer people buy any jam at all. More options, fewer decisions.
2004 (the book); 2000 (the jam study)19 min read
American social psychology and management
Sheena Iyengar
1969
Professor at Columbia Business School. With Mark Lepper she ran the 2000 field study in a California grocery store in which a display of 24 jams drew more passers-by but produced far fewer purchases than a display of 6 - the single most cited piece of evidence for choice overload, and one that later replication attempts and meta-analyses have not reliably reproduced.