• DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.73.3.437
• Corpus ID: 1095326

Explaining the Enigmatic Anchoring Effect: Mechanisms of Selective Accessibility

@article{Strack1997ExplainingTE,
  title={Explaining the Enigmatic Anchoring Effect: Mechanisms of Selective Accessibility},
  author={Fritz Strack and Thomas Mussweiler},
  journal={Journal of Personality and Social Psychology},
  year={1997},
  volume={73},
  pages={437-446}
}

• F. Strack, T. Mussweiler
• Published 1 September 1997
• Psychology
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Results of 3 studies support the notion that anchoring is a special case of semantic priming; specifically, information that is activated to solve a comparative anchoring task will subsequently be more accessible when participants make absolute judgments. By using the logic of priming research, in Study 1 the authors showed that the strength of the anchor effect depends on the applicability of activated information. Study 2 revealed a contrast effect when the activated information was not representative for the absolute judgment and the targets of the 2 judgment tasks were sufficiently different. Study 3 demonstrated that generating absolute judgments requires more time when comparative judgments include an implausible anchor and can therefore be made without relevant target information that would otherwise be accessible.