Anchoring does not activate examples associated with the anchor value

In the standard anchoring paradigm, people first compare a selected attribute of a target to a numeric value—an anchor. A subsequent absolute judgment of the target's attribute value is biased in the direction of the anchor. A prominent theory of the anchoring effect, the selective accessibility model, argues that people make the initial comparison by focusing on similarities between the target and the anchor, which activates information compatible with the anchor value being the target value. This activated information biases the subsequent estimate of the target value. To test the selective activation of information, the present study asked people to provide an example of the target's category following its comparison with an anchor. The attribute values of the provided examples were not biased in the direction of the anchor. However, they were positively associated with estimates of the target value. The study thus provides evidence for the use of activated information in the absolute judgment in the standard anchoring paradigm, but it does not show the selective activation of information compatible with the anchor value predicted by the selective accessibility model.

Anchoring without scale distortion

The scale distortion theory of anchoring argues that people are influenced by a previously considered value, an anchor, because the anchor distorts the scale on which a subsequent judgment is made. The distortion of the scale is a momentary effect and it cannot persist even after consideration of a different value on the same scale. In the present study, participants were presented with anchors by comparing thirteen random numeric values on the same scale to thirteen different objects. Subsequent numeric estimates of objects’ attributes were influenced by the corresponding anchors even though the anchors were divided from the estimates by twelve questions pertaining to different values on the same scale. The numeric value considered immediately before the estimate did not have a considerable effect on the judgment. While the anchoring effect was robust, it was not caused by scale distortion. Other possible theories of the anchoring effect, such as the selective accessibility model, are compatible with the results.

How Social Comparison Affects the Self

Social comparisons have powerful effects on the self. They influence how people see themselves, how they feel about themselves, and how they behave. The selective accessibility model attributes these self-evaluative, affective, motivational, and behavioral consequences of social comparison to changes in the accessibility of self-knowledge. Comparing to a social standard changes what knowledge about the self is accessible, which, in turn, produces the variety of downstream comparison consequences. This chapter provides an overview of the selective accessibility model along with the pertinent empirical evidence.

How Does an Initial Expectation Bias Influence Auditors' Application and Performance of Analytical Procedures?

ABSTRACT Prior research demonstrates that knowledge of unaudited balances biases auditors' expectations during analytical procedures. What is less understood is how these biases affect auditors' subsequent investigations and their conclusions about the reasonableness of a particular balance. We employ the selective accessibility model to examine the differences in analytical procedure performance when auditor expectations are formed with versus without knowledge of the client's unaudited financial statement balances. In an experimental setting, we found that auditors with knowledge of unaudited balances favored hypotheses and supporting information indicating that the client's balance was reasonably stated. Auditors who formed expectations without current-year figures were more willing to evaluate competing alternatives, could better identify the most pertinent information, and were significantly more likely to identify a material misstatement using an analytical procedure. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors on request.