title: When less is enough: Cognitive aging, information search, and decision quality in consumer choice.
abstract: We conducted a meta-analysis of age differences in predecisional information search (N = 1,304) that suggests that aging is associated with a small but significant decrease in predecisional information search (Hedges's g = -0.30). In addition, we investigated the consequences of limited information search for decision quality in real-world consumer environments using simulation methods. Overall, the results suggest that the aging decision maker can afford to neglect information because this leads to small losses in decision quality. In other words, less may be enough for the aging consumer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Portugal. ruimata@ruimata.com
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mata
authors.forename: Ludmila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nunes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult