Consumers struggle to spot good deals if taking more than two or three factors into account

Shoppers are likely to make costly mistakes when descriptions of products force them to think about too many things at once.

According to a report from the ESRI, once consumers have to take into account more than two or three factors at the same time, they struggle to spot good deals and often made mistakes.

The study is the first from the ESRI’s Price Lab — which conducts consumer experiments with consumers. The lab uses computerised experiments to study what consumers are capable of and what they are not.