A Review of the Psychological Factors and the Type of Search Affecting the Choice Overload in Information Retrieval Systems

the purpose of this study was to study the effect of psychological factors and the search type on choice overload in the information retrieval systems.

This study used a descriptive review method and was done based on the study of relevant literature on the choice overload theory. Collection of related articles was done with using the keywords of ‘‘Too-much-choice effect’’, ‘‘hyperchoice’’, ‘‘tyranny of choice’’, ‘‘paradox of choice’’, ‘‘lure of choice’’ and their combinations with the keywords of ‘‘maximizer’’, ‘‘satisficer’’, ‘‘type of search’’, ‘‘modulators’’ and ‘‘Google’’ in databases of SID, Magiran, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar in the time span of 1990-2017.

The findings showed that factors such as restrictions on cognitive ability and occurring cognitive overload (cognitive overload theory), feeling regret about not including all items and then regret about the choice that leads to so-called "berry picking" or information selection with obsession (serendipity theory), and trying to select relevant information regarding to the cognitive capacity constraints (selective attention theory) are dissatisfaction factors in many retrieved results. Browsing researches in this area shows that amongst psychological factors, the personality factor is an effective factor in the choice overload.

Users personality and search type are both effective variables in determining the level of satisfaction. According to the information retrieval systems' more direction toward customization, considering the type of personality and the type of search will lead to some retrieval with more satisfied users.