The paradoxical findings in consumer choice research have captivated the interest of many scholars from diverse fields and transformed the understanding of consumer decision-making. This paper is the first attempt to systematically review, synthesize, and integrate the paradoxical findings in consumer choice research. One of the first paradoxical findings was the violations of value maximation models of rational choice. The second important paradox in consumer choice research is the puzzling role of variety in consumer choices. We focus on these two critical paradoxes discovered in consumer choice literature over the last five decades and refer to them as the “paradox of rational choice” and the “paradox of variety.” We conducted a co-citation cluster analysis to help identify the most significant studies in the domain. The cluster analysis helped eliminate the subjective bias in article selection. We also used inferential analysis to widen the scope of clusters to other relevant and especially recent studies. A review of 233 papers published between 1972 and 2023 reveals the four themes covering the two paradoxes of consumer choice. The first theme covers the first paradox: the paradox of rational choice. It presents research on preference reversals and other violations of value maximization rational choice models due to contextual factors and choice environment. The following three themes cover the second paradox of consumer choice: the paradox of variety. The second theme focuses on the benefits of variety and the natural desire of consumers to seek more variety. Paradoxically, the third theme highlights when and why variety will likely cause harmful psychological consequences for consumers. Finally, the last theme reconciles the opposing ideas of themes two and three by identifying the boundary conditions and suggesting ways to resolve this paradox. We also provide research directions that scholars can consider for future research related to each of these themes.

中文翻译：

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描绘消费者选择悖论研究的演变——系统回顾和未来研究议程

消费者选择研究中的矛盾发现引起了来自不同领域的许多学者的兴趣，并改变了对消费者决策的理解。本文是系统回顾、综合和整合消费者选择研究中矛盾的发现的首次尝试。第一个矛盾的发现是违反理性选择的价值最大化模型。消费者选择研究中的第二个重要悖论是多样性在消费者选择中的令人困惑的作用。我们重点关注过去五年消费者选择文献中发现的两个关键悖论，并将它们称为“理性选择悖论”和“多样性悖论”。我们进行了同被引聚类分析，以帮助识别该领域最重要的研究。聚类分析有助于消除文章选择中的主观偏见。我们还使用推理分析将聚类范围扩大到其他相关研究，尤其是最近的研究。对 1972 年至 2023 年间发表的 233 篇论文的回顾揭示了涵盖消费者选择的两个悖论的四个主题。第一个主题涵盖第一个悖论：理性选择的悖论。它提出了由于情境因素和选择环境而导致的偏好逆转和其他违反价值最大化理性选择模型的研究。以下三个主题涵盖了消费者选择的第二个悖论：多样性悖论。第二个主题侧重于品种的好处以及消费者寻求更多品种的自然愿望。矛盾的是，第三个主题强调了多样性何时以及为何可能对消费者造成有害的心理后果。最后，最后一个主题通过确定边界条件并提出解决这一悖论的方法，调和了主题二和三的对立观点。我们还提供了学者们可以考虑与每个主题相关的未来研究的研究方向。