New Study Explores Why Consumers Stick With the Familiar or Try Something New

CHICAGO—March 11, 2026—Why do people often stick with familiar brands and choices, even when better options might exist? A new study co-authored by an Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) researcher explores the decision-making strategies behind when people choose to stay with what they know and when they decide to try something new. The research sheds light on how individuals balance short-term rewards with the potential benefits of exploring unfamiliar options, with implications for understanding consumer behavior, technology adoption, and innovation more broadly.

Stanton Hudja, assistant professor of business analytics and strategy at Illinois Tech’s Stuart School of Business, investigates how people make everyday decisions—such as choosing a new brand at the grocery store or adopting a new technology. His recent paper, “Strategies in the Multi-Armed Bandit,” published in the journal Experimental Economics, examines how individuals weigh the risks and rewards of trying new options versus sticking with those that have worked in the past.

“Every decision has a sort of trade-off,” says Hudja. “You can always sample a new option when you make a decision. We’re really trying to get at something fundamental in decision-making: do you do what’s best in the short term, or do you learn about one of your other options?”

To investigate this question, Hudja and his co-author, Daniel Woods of Macquarie Business School, conducted experiments based on the classic “multi-armed bandit” problem—an analogy in which participants repeatedly choose between multiple slot machines, or “one-armed bandits,” each offering different potential payouts. Participants had to decide whether to keep selecting machines that had produced good results previously or experiment with other machines that might yield higher rewards.

By analyzing participants’ choices across these experiments, Hudja and Woods tested a variety of decision strategy models to determine which best explained real-world behavior. As they collected more data, the researchers refined their models to better capture how individuals balance exploration with immediate gains.

There are many applications for this type of research, Hudja notes, with consumer behavior related to trying new products, services, or technologies being common ones.

“The research suggests that people tend to ignore new brands and new technologies, some because they might be averse to uncertainty,” says Hudja. His research also has shown that individuals typically discount the potential future benefits of collecting information about unfamiliar options, which takes effort and may or may not pay off.

Understanding these patterns in decision-making could help businesses, policymakers, and innovators design strategies that encourage people to experiment with new ideas and technologies.

“I think the overarching aspect of this research is how to get people to collect information and to innovate,” he says. “We study this at the micro level, but there are huge possible gains for the economy and for society if you have ways to encourage people to try new things.”

Photo: Stanton Hudja, assistant professor of business analytics and strategy

Illinois Institute of Technology

Based in the global metropolis of Chicago, Illinois Tech was born to liberate the power of collective difference to advance technology and innovation for all. It is the only tech-focused university in the city, and it stands at the crossroads of exploration and invention, advancing the future of Chicago and the world. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, computing, architecture, business, design, science and human sciences, and law. Illinois Tech students are guaranteed access to hands-on experiences, personalized mentorship, and job readiness through the university's one-of-a-kind Elevate program. Its graduates lead the state and much of the nation in economic prosperity. Its faculty and alumni built the Chicago skyline. And every day in the city's living lab, Illinois Tech fuels breakthroughs that change lives. Visit iit.edu.

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