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anchoring
A random number drastically alters your next choice.
In a 1974 study, spinning a wheel of fortune influenced participants' subsequent estimates of geographical data.
Even when subjects were told the number was generated randomly, their answers were skewed toward the initial value. The brain uses the first available piece of information as a mental anchor, adjusting final estimates from that starting point regardless of relevance. This anchor exerts gravity on your judgment.
Your first impressions set the boundaries for your later conclusions.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Tversky and Kahneman, 1974, Science
- What the check found
- The 1974 Science paper by Tversky and Kahneman is the definitive source for this experiment on anchoring effects.
- 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.