Seeing Is Believing, Experiencing Is Deciding: How Augmented Reality Attributes Drive Confidence in Choice and Willingness to Pay

Augmented reality (AR) now defines online retail, yet most research focuses on its usefulness and enjoyment rather than on how specific attributes shape consumer judgements. Drawing on the stimulus‐organism‐response (SOR) framework and self‐determination theory (SDT), this study examines how AR attributes (interactivity, vividness, novelty, and quality) relate to psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and in turn to confidence in choice and willingness to pay, comparing AR and non‐AR platforms among 468 shoppers using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM) and fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Interactivity and novelty were the most consistent drivers of need satisfaction, whereas quality was associated with autonomy alone, and only marginally so, and vividness offered no consistent advantage over non‐AR displays, pointing to a ceiling effect in already‐immersive settings. Autonomy predicted willingness to pay, and competence and relatedness predicted confidence in choice, so decision certainty and price valuation followed distinct motivational routes. Mediation analysis indicates that need satisfaction transmits these effects, and product uncertainty weakens the autonomy and relatedness pathways but not the competence pathway. Configurational analysis revealed five equifinal combinations of attributes and needs, indicating that no single condition is sufficient on its own and that AR attributes can substitute for one another. The study therefore establishes need satisfaction as the mechanism through which AR attributes shape judgements, and it shows practitioners how to align specific attributes with the psychological need most relevant to the intended outcome rather than maximising visual richness.