The over-categorization effect: How the number of categorizations influences shoppers' perceptions of variety and satisfaction

• An inverted-U relationship exists between categorization number and satisfaction.
• Perceived variety mediates the impact of categorization number on satisfaction.
• Overload and regret occurred in a high level of variety can decrease satisfaction.

The mere categorization effect indicates that increasing the number of categorizations for partitioning an assortment can motivate satisfaction. This paper seeks to further clarify the effect of categorization numbers on consumer satisfaction. As the number of categorizations starts to increase from a small one, the level of satisfaction rises accordingly. When the number of categorizations crosses a certain threshold, however, the perceived satisfaction may decrease. Three experiments involving 191 participants in total confirm the existence of the over-categorization effect, examine the influence of perceived overload and regret as the possible reasons causing this effect, and extend the external validity. The findings suggest that over-categorization ultimately pushes satisfaction level in the negative direction. Given a group of predetermined choices, increasing the number of categorizations accelerates satisfaction to a certain level, but the trend reverses when the excessive amount of variety overloads consumers and makes them regret their choices.