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decision making
A random number changes how you value a price.
A 1974 study found that people estimated the percentage of African nations in the UN differently depending on a random number spun on a wheel.
Even though the number was clearly random and irrelevant, participants who spun a higher number provided significantly higher estimates. Your brain uses the first available anchor to build its entire scale of judgment.
Your final decision is often just an adjustment of the first number you saw.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Tversky and Kahneman (1974), Anchoring Effect
- What the check found
- This is a foundational study in behavioral economics; the reference material provided did not contain the text, but the study is universally cited in academic literature.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.