Choice in the age of post-generalization: fragmentation, hyper-personalization, and private universes of choice

Choice research has traditionally aimed to identify general laws that hold across consumers and contexts. This article proposes a shift toward an alternative paradigm: the age of post-generalization. Under this paradigm, structured heterogeneity is the primary object of inquiry. Consumers differ not only in preferences, but in search processes, belief formation, and the mechanisms that generate choice. Firms respond through hyper-personalization, adapting the marketing mix at the individual level. At the same time, choice increasingly unfolds within environments shaped by platforms, inequality, and virtual worlds, where consumers face individualized sets of options. Together, these developments reorient choice research from explaining average behavior to mapping and explaining systematic variation. Progress lies in developing theories, measurements, and models that are designed for structured heterogeneity rather than built on the assumption of generalization.