The group of students who solved the first problem (1 x 2…etc.) estimated that the solution to the problem would be significantly lower than the group that solved the second problem (8 x 7…etc.). Neither group was given sufficient time to solve the problem and arrive at a confident answer – only 5 seconds! The tight timeline forced them to estimate. But the experiment was never really about math. The problems are identical – the numbers are just reversed. The answers to the two problems are, of course, the same. The other group was asked to solve this problem: 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1. One group was asked to solve the following problem: 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8. In the article, Kahneman and Tversky describe an anchoring bias experiment that challenged two groups of high school students to complete a lengthy multiplication problem. In 1974, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman published a research article titled “ Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” This article documented the first clinical evidence of the anchoring effect.Īmos Tversy and Daniel Kahneman – Image courtesy of Time Magazine When anchoring works against you, it’s increasingly difficult to do so.īefore diving into how the anchoring effect can help or hurt your business, let’s look at how it works. When anchoring works for you, marketing your company’s products or services becomes easier. It’s one of the most important effects of cognitive psychology. The anchoring effect can work for you or against you. Why should you care that anchoring affects people’s decision-making? Anchoring is one of the most fundamental principles of marketing psychology. Instead, people tend to unconsciously latch onto the first fact they hear, basing their decision-making on whether it’s accurate or not. And they rarely take the time to learn the full facts before taking action.
People frequently act illogically, making their behavior difficult to predict. Marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners assume that most people make decisions by researching and then weighing the options.īut that’s not how most people make decisions.
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