Time for a change! Uprooting users embedded in the status quo from habitual decision-making

Abstract

Introducing the feature of “Buy Again” or “Order Again” is a common practice for online platforms to facilitate consumer repurchases. Although the adoption of these features can cultivate consumers' dependence on focal products and promote habitual purchases, it potentially hinders the promotion of new products and reduces consumer choice diversity. This raises a broader issue of how to inhibit habitual decision-making, rendering exploring the underlying mechanisms for inhibiting habitual decision-making essential, a topic largely overlooked by previous literature. To address this gap, this research explores how decision-related new information, namely Bayesian updating information, influences consumers' repeated decision-making. Utilizing the paradigm of Monty Hall dilemma, the findings show that Bayesian updating information curtails habitual decisions by encouraging consumers to choose alternative options in both scenarios in which the initial choices are self-decided or given by default. Applying the HDDM (hierarchical drift-diffusion model), the results indicate that, in both scenarios, Bayesian updating information reduces consumers' status quo bias, i.e., mitigates their initial preferences for initial choices, and facilitates the accumulation of evidence for changing initial choices. Notably, when the initial choices are self-decided, consumers with Bayesian updating information tend to seek more evidence to make decisions than those without it, while this trend is not observed when the initial choices are given by default. These findings deepen our understanding of online repeated decision-making and provide valuable insights into the design of decision support systems to discourage consumers' habitual decisions and enhance their choice diversity in online shopping.