Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt

Institut für Psychologie

Essay
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic: Why the
Adjustments are Insufficient

LV: 160.650 English Terminology

LV-Lehrende: Univ.-Ass. Dott.ssa Martina Vacondio

Nina Waltersdorfer
Matrikelnummer: 12023427
Wintersemester 2022
Email-Adresse: ninawal@edu.aau.at
The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic is a strategy for estimating unknown quantities. This works by
starting with an information a person already knows, the anchor, which is somehow connected to the
information one wants to make an estimate about, and then adjust from this knowledge. The problem
with this heuristic is the insufficient adjustment, which causes judgmental biases. When using the
anchor to find a conclusion, it shows that the final answers are assimilated to the starting information.
The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic is considered both, a phenomenon, and a process.
Researchers put forward the thesis that adjustment from anchors tend to be insufficient because
people stop adjusting as soon as a believable estimate is reached, unless one is willing to continue to
find an even more accurate answer.

Two sets of experiments were conducted to evaluate the thesis with students from different
universities. In the first study the participants were asked questions, which are known to elicit
adjustment. It was predicted that the estimates would be assimilated to the self-generated anchor.
This was also done with experimenter-provided anchors because such items do not elicit adjustment,
which means it was expected that the answers would not be skewed to the starting information. In the
second study the experts examined the impact of different variables, which influence the likelihood to
accept the first value which seems plausible. The variables included need for cognition (NFC), alcohol
consumption and cognitive load.

The analyses only included participants which reported that they used an anchor. In the study ten out
of twelve responses yielded the predicted pattern, which told that the students will stop adjusting as
soon as a plausible estimate was reached. The results also showed that different variables have an
impact if one is willing to search for an even better answer. Participants who were high in need for
cognition, and because of that were willing to engage in effortful thoughts, provided estimates further
from the anchor. In contrast students which had consumed alcohol or were under cognitive load were
more likely to stop adjusting after reaching a satisfactory answer. However, these manipulations only
worked with the self-generated anchors and not with those which were provided by the experimenter.

The studies suggest that most people stop adjusting as soon as a plausible value is reached.
Furthermore, the tests provide evidence that it takes effort to adjust correctly and therefor the
variables have a noticeable impact on the ability to seek more accurate estimates. It was also
confirmed that manipulations only influence self-generated anchors, indicating that not all anchoring
effects stem from the same psychological mechanisms. Still there are many questions which remain
unsolved, like if other types of anchors exist or if the nature of adjustment is continuous, which
requires further research.

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Although this paper provides several interesting findings about the anchor-and-adjustment heuristic,
it only gives little insight to why experimenter-provided anchors do not elicit adjustment, whilst self-
generated anchors do. In addition, even more manipulations should be used to find out if they have
an impact on the willingness to adjust further and why exactly they do have an influence. In future
research it would be interesting to learn if you can prevent people from using this heuristic, since this
also has an impact on social comparison due to an initial impression. In my opinion this is a very
interesting topic, which should receive way more research to be understood accurately.

Literaturverzeichnis
Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2006). The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic: Why the Adjustments Are
Insufficient. Psychological Science, 17(4), 311-318. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-
9280.2006.01704.x