When perfectionism leads to imperfect consumer choices: The role of dichotomous thinking

Abstract In four studies, this research investigates the role of perfectionism in consumer decision making and demonstrates that perfectionists often make inferior decisions when facing difficult tasks. Although perfectionists outperform those with low need for perfection at medium levels of decision difficulty, their advantages disappear at high levels of decision difficulty. Driven by dichotomous thinking, perfectionists give up on the task when they realize that a perfect outcome is no longer possible and make inferior decisions. Paradoxically, when given the opportunity to select their own task, perfectionists sometimes avoid tasks over which they have comparative advantage but prefer tasks of high complexity, without realizing the effect of dichotomous thinking on subsequent choices.