Many examples of sub-optimal decisions in the marketplace have captivated the attention of media, business institutions, and public policy in recent years. For instance, the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States that led to the 2008 recession, the insufficient health care architecture that bolsters the debates among US houses on health care reform, and the problem of food epidemic resulting in obesity and various other health-related problems among the growing number of young people worldwide. Despite these examples, more work is needed to learn about the processes that contribute to better decision outcomes among the market participants. In all of these instances, decisions must have some objective quality (e.g., the probability of choosing the optimal choice) and not just subjective quality (e.g., feeling confident or satisfied). In light of the ever-increasing use of handheld devices (e.g., tablets and smart phones) and the expanding digital media sources to access marketplace information, there is a proliferation of global visual culture (e.g., Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, etc. See for example: Walter, 2012). Thus, it is important to examine the effects of two major information presentation formats – visual vs. textual – on consumer decision outcomes. This paper focuses its research question on examining the effect of information presentation formats on consumer decision outcomes in complex choice environments (e.g., financial products). Using construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003; Trope & Liberman, 2010), an experiment was conducted to examine the effect of information presentation formats (visual vs. textual) on a set of credit card products. Preliminary analysis reveals that significantly more participants opted for the textual information format for choosing a credit card offer. However, there is no difference in participants’ readiness and ability to make a choice based on the information format in the context of credit card offers. In addition, there is a non-significant difference between participants who felt ready to make a choice based on the information in their chosen format, and those who stated unable to make a choice. The seemingly apparent reason for this weak support for the visual effect in this study is the population of the sample. The participants were junior or sophomore students, 84 percent of whom aged between 20 and 22 years old. In a further examination of why participants felt unready/unable to make a choice, they stated the strong necessity to consult with parents, desire for more research and understanding, and the (lack of) usefulness of having a credit card for daily usage in their stage of life.

• Sereikhuoch Eng(University of Rhode Island)