Personal involvement, task complexity, and the decision making process: An information search analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of personal involvement and task complexity on the decision making process. Seventy-four female university students were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (personal involvement: low or high) × 3 (task comlexity: 2, 6, or 10 alternatives) design. The main results were as follows. (I) The subjects spent a greater amount of time reaching decisions in which they had greater involvement. (2) The subjects inquired about a greater amount of information during the decision task in which they had greater involvement. (3) The subjects more often returned to the information that they had already inquired about during the decision task in which they had greater involvement. (4) An interaction effect between involvement and task complexity was observed. That is, the effect of involvement on decision making process was largest when task complexity was moderate.