Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mussweiler, Thomas
• Strack, Fritz
• Pfeiffer, Tim

Titel

Overcoming the Inevitable Anchoring Effect: Considering the Opposite Compensates for Selective Accessibility

Ist Teil von

• Personality & social psychology bulletin, 2000-09, Vol.26 (9), p.1142-1150

Ort / Verlag

Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

Erscheinungsjahr

2000

Quelle

Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Anchoring effects—the assimilation of a numeric estimate to a previously considered standard—have proved to be remarkably robust. Results of two studies, however, demonstrate that anchoring can be reduced by applying a consider-the-opposite strategy. Based on the Selective Accessibility Model, which assumes that anchoring is mediated by the selectively increased accessibility of anchor-consistent knowledge, the authors hypothesized that increasing the accessibility of anchor-inconsistent knowledge mitigates the effect. Considering the opposite (i.e., generating reasons why an anchor is inappropriate) fulfills this objective and consequently proves to be a successful corrective strategy. In a real-world setting using experts as participants, Study 1 dem-onstrated that listing arguments that speak against a provided anchor value reduces the effect. Study 2 further revealed that the effects of anchoring and considering the opposite are additive.