Abstract
This article investigates effects of anchoring in age estimation and estimation of quantities, two tasks which to different extents are based on visual stimuli. The results are compared to anchoring in answers to classic general knowledge questions that rely on semantic knowledge. Cognitive load was manipulated to explore possible differences between domains. Effects of source credibility, manipulated by differing instructions regarding the selection of anchor values (no information regarding anchor selection, information that the anchors are randomly generated or information that the anchors are answers from an expert) on anchoring were also investigated. Effects of anchoring were large for all types of judgments but were not affected by cognitive load or by source credibility in either one of the researched domains. A main effect of cognitive load on quantity estimations and main effects of source credibility in the two visually based domains indicate that the manipulations were efficient. Implications for theoretical explanations of anchoring are discussed. In particular, because anchoring did not interact with cognitive load, the results imply that the process behind anchoring in visual tasks is predominantly automatic and unconscious.
Highlights
Estimations of unknown quantities in our environment are a part of everyday life
Anchoring effects – the assimilation of numeric estimates to previously considered standards – are a robust finding from studies of heuristics and biases in judgments under uncertainty
The analysis revealed a significant main effect of Anchor value [F(1,141) = 318.5, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.69], but no interactions between Source credibility and Anchor value or between Cognitive load and Anchor value
Summary
Estimating the age of a new acquaintance or estimating how many cookies there are left in the cookie jar are activities that most people have performed. Such numerical estimations are often influenced by available anchors or standards. If someone was told another person’s estimation of the age of a new acquaintance or of how many cookies there are left in the jar, their estimate would probably be influenced by the other person’s estimates. Anchoring effects – the assimilation of numeric estimates to previously considered standards (i.e., anchors) – are a robust finding from studies of heuristics and biases in judgments under uncertainty (as in the classical paradigm initiated by Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). The effects occur participants are told to disregard from the anchor value in their estimates (Mussweiler and Strack, 1999), when anchors are presented without explicit instructions to compare the anchor value with the target (Brewer and Chapman, 2002), and even when the anchors are presented subliminally (Mussweiler and Englich, 2005)
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