Time Pressure and User Ratings on Consumers’ Choice and Eye Fixations

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how time pressure and user ratings impacted consumer’s choice behavior and their eye fixation when shopping for online products. Participants were displayed various fictitious brands of the same types of product and were required to choose one that they would purchase. It was found that choices of a product and its associated eye fixations increased with user ratings. Compared to the time-pressure absence condition, the time-pressure presence condition had faster choice decisions and fewer eye fixations. There was also a significant interaction between user ratings and time pressure, for which products with a 5-star rating, not the lower ratings, was chosen more often in the time-pressure presence condition than in the time-pressure absence condition. Lastly, subjective reports showed that more individuals reported they had plenty of time to make their decisions in the time-pressure absence condition than in the time-pressure presence condition. Our results can inform retailers and webpage designers of potential design strategies in consideration of consumers’ behavior while shopping in different conditions of time pressure.

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on the first author’s honors thesis conducted at Old Dominion University. The authors would like to thank Mary Still, Deborah Major, and Matt Judah on their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeremiah G. Ammons

Jeremiah G. Ammons is a Master’s student in Human Factors Psychology at Old Dominion University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Old Dominion University in 2020. His research interests focus on theories of human behavior and decision-making and applying this knowledge to improve the interaction of humans and technology.

Cody Parker

Cody Parker is a Junior Cognitive Systems Engineer at Resilient Cognitive Solutions. He received a M.S. degree in Human Factors Psychology from Old Dominion University. His research interests focused on decision making and risk taking under time pressure and his current work focuses on human-machine teaming in cognitively taxing domains.

Jing Chen

Jing Chen is an Assistant Professor of Human Factors Psychology at Old Dominion University. Her research interests include fundamental theories of human performance and decision-making, and applying them to real-world human-automation interaction problems. She received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and M.S. in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University in 2015.