h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why is it that when we by clothes, we will quite often spend _ages_ comparing different clothes in different shops, agonising over the colour, style and price.

The same also goes for hi-fi, gadgets, etc.. But when it comes to buying cars or houses, the time spent in the decision making process and viewing process is disproportionate to the costs - when compared to those items mentioned earlier.

i.e. I would hazzard a guess that most test drives of new cars last less then 30 minutes. Most folks buying a new home probably walk around it twice at the most, for a total of probably 45 - 50 minutes.

I wonder if there is a name for this phenomenom, or indeed the ratio between cost : time spent making the decistion to buy the item ??