BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS OF COGNITIVE ECONOMY IN CONSUMER CHOICE

Abstract

The article addresses consumer decision-making in an environment where expanding assortments, intensive marketing signals, and the development of digital services make fully rational product comparison increasingly difficult. Under these conditions, consumers seek to reduce the burden on attention, memory, and time; therefore, they more often rely on simple cues, repeated purchasing patterns, and technology-based prompts. The study aims to reveal cognitive economy as a behavioral mechanism that helps consumers make decisions more quickly, while also creating risks of impulsivity and dependence on an externally shaped choice environment. The object of the study is consumer behavior under conditions of information saturation, excessive choice, visual influence, service convenience, and digital automation of purchasing. The empirical basis consists of an anonymous online survey of 108 respondents, combining closed-ended Likert-scale questions with open-ended responses. The study applies analysis and synthesis, comparison, systematization, descriptive statistics, correlation and covariance analysis, and content analysis of respondents’ responses. The results show that color, packaging design, brand recognizability, and interface cues may operate as cognitive reference points, reducing choice time and strengthening subjective confidence in the decision. At the same time, these stimuli do not always promote rationality, as they may trigger impulsive purchases. The study also demonstrates that consumers attach considerable importance to delivery convenience, saving physical effort, automated services, and repeat purchases, especially when the choice process becomes complex or emotionally exhausting. The analysis of open-ended responses revealed that 65% of respondents associate freedom of choice primarily with independence, clarity, control, and the absence of intrusive influence, rather than merely with the number of available products. The practical value of the study lies in the potential to use its findings to help consumers assess marketing stimuli more critically and to guide businesses in developing convenient, structured, and ethically balanced solutions that simplify choice without manipulative influence.