Do consumers make less accurate decisions when they use mobiles?

The migration of consumers from personal computers (PCs) to mobile devices (mobiles) to engage in e-commerce has accelerated in recent years. Despite this trend, the literature tells us little about how the use of mobiles instead of PCs affects information processing and decision making. Seeking to untangle the implications of mobile use, this study defines the device and display as two orthogonal variables, which are hypothesized to affect decision accuracy (consistency with preferences), both directly and indirectly, through the mediating variables of information seeking and information load. Two laboratory experiments show that the mobile display (less information on the main page), but not the mobile device (smaller screen), affects information processing and decreases decision accuracy. Furthermore, when the information subset presented on the mobile display is of higher quality (more informative to the user), the consequences of mobile use relative to PC use are less adverse.