The choice overload effect refers to the experimental finding that a larger choice set may in fact yield fewer overall purchases than would be observed with a smaller set. The effect has received much attention, but empirical evidence has been mixed so far. We describe the first study that attempts to confirm choice overload in a large online experiment, involving thousands of households making major purchases. The experiment was conducted by an online travel and price aggregator company, which offered some users a limited set of hotels while others had access to the full list. The results were in the direction opposite to choice overload, i.e. purchase rates decreased with fewer choices.
