Exploring the relationship between cognitive effort exertion and regret in online vs. offline shopping

Decision making is a fundamental building block of people’s lives. Each decision requires expenditure of cognitive effort, though to a varying degree, which is considered a valuable yet limited resource in the decision making literature. Though the importance of a cognitive effort minimization goal is well-established in the marketing literature, this paper examined how cognitive effort exertion can be useful to minimize negative emotions such as regret in the consumer decision making context. Study 1 explored the impact of cognitive effort on the experience of regret by conducting a 2 (Cognitive effort: High vs. Low) 2 (Store type: Offline vs. Online) experiment and found higher cognitive effort exertion led to less regret after missing out on a lower price. This effect was most prominent in an offline purchase situation. Study 2 further examined the elements of online shopping that led to a higher regret by conducting a 2 (Cognitive effort: High vs. Low) 2 (Type of Information: Touch vs. Visual) experiment. Study 2 confirmed the benefits of touch information in reducing experienced regret; but cognitive effort moderated this effect. Overall, the current studies contribute to the progression of knowledge between cognitive effort and experienced regret when shopping online and offline. 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.