Anchoring effect

Bahnik, S, Mussweiler, T M and Strack, F (2022) Anchoring effect. In: Cognitive illusions: intriguing phenomena in thinking, judgement and memory. Routledge, London. ISBN 9781003154730

Abstract

An assimilation of an estimate towards a previously considered standard is defined as judgmental anchoring. Anchoring constitutes a ubiquitous phenomenon that occurs in a variety of laboratory and real-world settings. Anchoring effects are remarkably robust. They may occur even if the anchor values are clearly uninformative or implausibly extreme, are sometimes independent of participants’ motivation and expertise, and may persist over long periods of time. Different underlying mechanisms may contribute to the generation of anchoring effects. Specifically, anchoring may result from insufficient adjustment, from the use of conversational inferences, from selective accessibility of information consistent with an anchor, or from the distortion of a response scale.