Visible closure at the end of a snack or meal – say, putting cling wrap over that plate of cookies – could head off temptations to go back for more.
Recent research into consumer decision making found that ‘closure’ after making a decision effectively demonstrates to your deep brain that you’re done, enabling your head to move on. Not crave.
“Choice closure, the psychological process through which consumers perceive a decision as complete and stop reassessing their choice, can increase satisfaction with decisions involving many alternatives. Subtle physical acts that symbolise closure can trigger choice closure and increase satisfaction,” academics from London Business School wrote.
The inner battle when there’s no closure is similar to what’s commonly known as ‘post purchase dissonance’, whereby we try to justify that dress to ourselves – especially when there’s a lax returns policy.
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