The Anchoring Effect

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Let's start with an experiment.

Consider the following two calculations and attempt to guess the answer.

Don't use a calculator, take 10 seconds, and make your guess.

1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 = ?

8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = ?

What did you guess?

Were your guesses different?

The average guess for the first sum is 512, for the second it's 2,250 (4x higher).

Many of you will have figured out that the actual answer is exactly the same.

It's 40,320 for both sums.

So, why were the estimates so dramatically different?

Well, it's due to anchoring.

Anchoring = we attach far greater significance to the first few numbers.

In his brilliant book Consumerology¹, Graves writes that the same principle applies to words.

One study asked participants to read one of these two sentences and quickly decide who they'd like more:

John is intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and jealous.

Mark is jealous, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent.

The words used to describe both are identical, yet perceptions changed.

Readers were heavily influenced by the first word and said they'd prefer John.

Richard Shotton, in his fantastic book², applied this finding to ads.

He showed one of the following ads to two separate groups.

Those who read the positives first ranked the ad 11% higher.

So, are you leading with your best benefit?

Phill

¹Graves, P. (2010). Consumer.ology: The market research myth, the truth about consumers, and the psychology of shopping. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

²Shotton, R. (2018). The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy. Harriman House.

As a behavioural science practitioner, I believe in the peak-end rule.

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