When the Known Well May Sell The Interaction of Familiarity and Choice Numeracy on Satisfaction with a Streaming Video on Demand Recommendation Interface
Main Article Content
Keywords
Choice Overload, Choice Familiarity, Streaming Video on Demand, Digital Platforms, Recommendation Systems
Abstract
While Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) consumers may express a desire for unlimited new and novel choices, excess choice can cause anxiety and choice overload. Further, familiarity can also influence perceptions of available choices. Addressing a gap in the literature on familiarity’s interaction with choice numeracy in an SVOD recommendation environment, this 2x2 experiment examines effects of choice-set size of TV sitcoms on potential use/perceptions of SVOD platforms and to what extent familiarity with the choices interacts with those perceptions through examining differences and interactions between small vs large choice sets, and familiar vs non-familiar shows. Familiarity tends to override potential choice overload effects and non-familiarity tends to exacerbate negative effects associated with too much choice, which has implications for purveyors of not only SVOD systems but other digital applications with similar recommendation systems, such as music streaming and podcasts, to emphasise choices that are likely to have familiarity to consumers, especially when interfaces themselves may be unfamiliar.
References
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Lenhard, W. & Lenhard, A. (2016). Calculation of Effect Sizes. Retrieved from https://www.psychometrica.de/effect_size.html. Dettelbach (Germany): Psychometrica. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17823.92329
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Massa, M., & Simonov, A. (2006). Hedging, familiarity and portfolio choice. The Review of Financial Studies, 19(2), 633–685. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhj013
Matysek, A., & Tomaszczyk, J. (2022). In quest of goldilocks ranges in searching for information on the web. Journal of Documentation, 78(2), 264–283. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2021-0019
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Misuraca, R., Ceresia, F., Teuscher, U., & Faraci, P. (2019). The role of the brand on choice overload. Mind & Society, 18, 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-019-00210-7
Misuraca, R., Nixon, A. E., Miceli, S., Di Stefano, G., & Scaffidi Abbate, C. (2024). On the advantages and disadvantages of choice: future research directions in choice overload and its moderators. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1290359. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1290359
Misuraca, R., Teuscher, U., & Faraci, P. (2016). Is more choice always worse? Age differences in the overchoice effect. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 28(2), 242–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2015.1118107
Mogilner, C., Rudnick, T., & Iyengar, S. S. (2008). The mere categorization effect: How the presence of categories increases choosers' perceptions of assortment variety and outcome satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2), 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1086/588698
Peterson, N., & Cheng, J. (2020). Decision experience in hyperchoice: the role of numeracy and age differences. Current Psychology, 41, 5399–5411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01041-3
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(4), 364–382. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_3
Reeves, B., & Geiger, S. (1994). Designing experiments that assess psychological responses to media messages. In A. Lang (Ed.), Measuring Psychological Responses to Media Messages (pp. 165–180). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Reutskaja, E., Cheek, N. N., Iyengar, S., & Schwartz, B. (2022). Choice deprivation, choice overload, and satisfaction with choices across six nations. Journal of International Marketing, 30(3), 18–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069031X211073821
Reutskaja, E., Iyengar, S., Fasolo, B., & Misuraca, R. (2020). Cognitive and affective consequences of information and choice overload. In R. Viale (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Bounded Rationality (pp. 625–636). Routledge.
Roselius, T. (1971). Consumer Rankings of Risk Reduction Methods. Journal of Marketing, 35(1), 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297103500110
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1086/651235
Schwartz, B. (2004). The Tyranny of Choice. Scientific American, 290(4), 70–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0404-70
Spears, N., & Singh, S. N. (2004). Measuring attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 26(2), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2004.10505164
Ward, M. K., Goodman, J. K., & Irwin, J. R. (2014). The same old song: The power of familiarity in music choice. Marketing Letters, 25(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-013-9238-1
Willemsen, M. C., Graus, M. P., & Knijnenburg, B. P. (2016). Understanding the role of latent feature diversification on choice difficulty and satisfaction. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 26(4), 347–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-016-9178-6
Wise, K., Bolls, P. D., & Schaefer, S. R. (2008). Choosing and reading online news: How available choice affects cognitive processing. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(1), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150701820858
YouGov.com. (2021). The Most Famous All-time TV Shows (Q3 2021). YouGov US. https://today.yougov.com/ratings/entertainment/popularity/all-time-tv-shows/all
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, pt2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/h002584
Afonso, H. M., Keizer, A., Biľak, P., & Beier, S. (2024). Familiarity effect in the perception of handwriting: Evaluating in-group/out-group effect among readers of the Latin script. Journal of Writing Research, 16(2), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2024.16.02.01
Beneke, J. (2015). Are consumers really bewildered by overchoice? An experimental approach to the tyranny of “Too much”. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 21(1), 90–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2013.843490
Bollen, D., Knijnenburg, B. P., Willemsen, M. C., & Graus, M. (2010, September). Understanding choice overload in recommender systems. In Proceedings of the fourth ACM conference on Recommender systems (pp. 63–70). https://doi.org/10.1145/1864708.1864724
Bornstein, R. F. (1989). Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987. Psychological Bulletin, 106(2), 265–289. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.106.2.265
Chernev, A. (2003). Product assortment and individual decision processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(1), 151. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.1.151
Chernev, A., Bockenholt, U., & Goodman, J. (2015). Choice overload: A conceptual review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(2), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2015.07.001
Corretore, C. L., Marble, R. P., Wiedenbeck, S., Kracher, B., & Chandran, A. (2005). Measuring online trust of websites: Credibility, perceived ease of use, and risk. AMCIS 2005 Proceedings, Paper 370. https://asset-pdf.scinapse.io/prod/46967924/46967924.pdf
Ekstrand, M. D., Harper, F. M., Willemsen, M. C., & Konstan, J. A. (2014, October). User perception of differences in recommender algorithms. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Recommender systems (pp. 161–168). https://doi.org/10.1145/2645710.2645737
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford University Press.
Forster, M., Leder, H., & Ansorge, U. (2013). It felt fluent, and I liked it: subjective feeling of fluency rather than objective fluency determines liking. Emotion, 13(2), 280–289. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030115
Gourville, J. T., & Soman, D. (2005). Overchoice and assortment type: When and why variety backfires. Marketing Science, 24(3), 382–395. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1040.0109
Graham, T. (2018). Platforms and hyper-choice on the World Wide Web. Big Data & Society, 5(1), 2053951718765878. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718765878
Greul, A., Schweisfurth, T. G., & Raasch, C. (2023). Does familiarity with an idea bias its evaluation?. Plos one, 18(7), e0286968. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286968
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995
Jacoby, L. L., & Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110(3), 306–340. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.110.3.306
Kim, J., Kim, J. H., Kim, C., & Park, J. (2023). Decisions with ChatGPT: Reexamining choice overload in ChatGPT recommendations. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 75, 103494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103494
Knijnenburg, B. P., Willemsen, M. C., Gantner, Z., Soncu, H., & Newell, C. (2012). Explaining the user experience of recommender systems. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 22, 441–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-011-9118-4
Launspach, T., van der Deijl, M., Spiering, M., Heemskerk, M. M., Maas, E. N., & Marckelbach, D. (2016). Choice Overload and the Quarterlife Phase: Do Higher Educated Quarterlifers Experience More Stress?. Journal of Psychological and Educational Research, 24(2), 7–16. http://www.marianjournals.com/files/JPER_articles/JPER_24_2_2016/Launspach_et_all_JPER_2016_25_2_7_16.pdf
Lenhard, W. & Lenhard, A. (2016). Calculation of Effect Sizes. Retrieved from https://www.psychometrica.de/effect_size.html. Dettelbach (Germany): Psychometrica. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17823.92329
Longo, C., & Baiyere, A. (2021). So, what should I watch? Choice overload among SVOD users. In ISPIM Conference Proceedings (pp. 1–15). The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM). https://research.cbs.dk/en/publications/so-what-should-i-watch-choice-overload-among-svod-users
Massa, M., & Simonov, A. (2006). Hedging, familiarity and portfolio choice. The Review of Financial Studies, 19(2), 633–685. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhj013
Matysek, A., & Tomaszczyk, J. (2022). In quest of goldilocks ranges in searching for information on the web. Journal of Documentation, 78(2), 264–283. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2021-0019
Mick, D. G., Broniarczyk, S. M., & Haidt, J. (2004). Choose, choose, choose, choose, choose, choose, choose: Emerging and prospective research on the deleterious effects of living in consumer hyperchoice. Journal of Business Ethics, 52(2), 207–211. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:busi.0000035906.74034.d4
Misuraca, R., Ceresia, F., Teuscher, U., & Faraci, P. (2019). The role of the brand on choice overload. Mind & Society, 18, 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-019-00210-7
Misuraca, R., Nixon, A. E., Miceli, S., Di Stefano, G., & Scaffidi Abbate, C. (2024). On the advantages and disadvantages of choice: future research directions in choice overload and its moderators. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1290359. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1290359
Misuraca, R., Teuscher, U., & Faraci, P. (2016). Is more choice always worse? Age differences in the overchoice effect. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 28(2), 242–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2015.1118107
Mogilner, C., Rudnick, T., & Iyengar, S. S. (2008). The mere categorization effect: How the presence of categories increases choosers' perceptions of assortment variety and outcome satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(2), 202–215. https://doi.org/10.1086/588698
Peterson, N., & Cheng, J. (2020). Decision experience in hyperchoice: the role of numeracy and age differences. Current Psychology, 41, 5399–5411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01041-3
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(4), 364–382. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_3
Reeves, B., & Geiger, S. (1994). Designing experiments that assess psychological responses to media messages. In A. Lang (Ed.), Measuring Psychological Responses to Media Messages (pp. 165–180). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Reutskaja, E., Cheek, N. N., Iyengar, S., & Schwartz, B. (2022). Choice deprivation, choice overload, and satisfaction with choices across six nations. Journal of International Marketing, 30(3), 18–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069031X211073821
Reutskaja, E., Iyengar, S., Fasolo, B., & Misuraca, R. (2020). Cognitive and affective consequences of information and choice overload. In R. Viale (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Bounded Rationality (pp. 625–636). Routledge.
Roselius, T. (1971). Consumer Rankings of Risk Reduction Methods. Journal of Marketing, 35(1), 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297103500110
Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R., & Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1086/651235
Schwartz, B. (2004). The Tyranny of Choice. Scientific American, 290(4), 70–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0404-70
Spears, N., & Singh, S. N. (2004). Measuring attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 26(2), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2004.10505164
Ward, M. K., Goodman, J. K., & Irwin, J. R. (2014). The same old song: The power of familiarity in music choice. Marketing Letters, 25(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-013-9238-1
Willemsen, M. C., Graus, M. P., & Knijnenburg, B. P. (2016). Understanding the role of latent feature diversification on choice difficulty and satisfaction. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 26(4), 347–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11257-016-9178-6
Wise, K., Bolls, P. D., & Schaefer, S. R. (2008). Choosing and reading online news: How available choice affects cognitive processing. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(1), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150701820858
YouGov.com. (2021). The Most Famous All-time TV Shows (Q3 2021). YouGov US. https://today.yougov.com/ratings/entertainment/popularity/all-time-tv-shows/all
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, pt2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/h002584
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Published
2025-04-01
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How to Cite
Fisher, N., Lee, H., & Flansburg, G. (2025). When the Known Well May Sell: The Interaction of Familiarity and Choice Numeracy on Satisfaction with a Streaming Video on Demand Recommendation Interface. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 13(1), 406-426. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v13n1.1011
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Telecommunications
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Author Biographies
Nathan Fisher, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma, USA
Assistant Professor, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma, USA
Hyelim Lee, School of Media & Communication, Korea University, South Korea
Assistant Professor, School of Media & Communication, Korea University, South Korea
How to Cite
Fisher, N., Lee, H., & Flansburg, G. (2025). When the Known Well May Sell: The Interaction of Familiarity and Choice Numeracy on Satisfaction with a Streaming Video on Demand Recommendation Interface. Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 13(1), 406-426. https://doi.org/10.18080/jtde.v13n1.1011
