Overcoming the Inevitable Anchoring Effect: Considering the Opposite Compensates for Selective Accessibility
Mussweiler, Strack and Pfeiffer tested whether anchoring can be reduced deliberately, and found one strategy that works. Their reasoning comes from the selective accessibility model, in which an anchor operates by making anchor-consistent knowledge easier to bring to mind. If that is the mechanism, then increasing the accessibility of anchor-inconsistent knowledge should counteract it, and the way to do that is to generate reasons why the anchor is inappropriate before answering. Across two studies, that consider-the-opposite instruction reduced anchoring. The practical translation is precise and worth keeping: the instruction that works is not to be careful, which has no measured effect, but to construct the argument against the number. This is the only defence against anchoring in the moment with direct experimental support behind it.
Mussweiler, Strack and Pfeiffer tested whether anchoring can be reduced deliberately, and found one strategy that works. Their reasoning comes from the selective accessibility model, in which an anchor operates by making anchor-consistent knowledge easier to bring to mind. If that is the mechanism, then increasing the accessibility of anchor-inconsistent knowledge should counteract it, and the way to do that is to generate reasons why the anchor is inappropriate before answering. Across two studies, that consider-the-opposite instruction reduced anchoring. The practical translation is precise and worth keeping: the instruction that works is not to be careful, which has no measured effect, but to construct the argument against the number. This is the only defence against anchoring in the moment with direct experimental support behind it.
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Mussweiler, T., Strack, F., & Pfeiffer, T. (2000). 'Overcoming the inevitable anchoring effect: Considering the opposite compensates for selective accessibility.' Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1142-1150. doi:10.1177/01461672002611010
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https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672002611010
DOI: 10.1177/01461672002611010