Knowledge and Anchoring: Verification of Three Circumstances in Which Knowledge Does Not Interfere with Anchoring

Abstract

Many researchers have demonstrated that those people with higher knowledge are less subject to the impact of a given anchor. In real life, however, a situation might be quite complicated and not simply a question of an existing high (or low) anchor. We have designed four tests to demonstrate the relation between knowledge and anchoring. We hold that only in general situations can knowledge interfere with the anchoring effect. Study 1 was used to demonstrate this hypothesis. The research result in turn served as the foundation for our follow-up studies. Based on this foundation, we conducted three experiments to demonstrate that, when faced with a complicated and difficult estimation that must be completed within a short period of time (Study 2), when the source of information possesses a high degree of reliability (Study 3), and when practical experience is lacking (Study 4), the anchoring effect will still exert influences on people with higher knowledge.

Anchor effects in appraisals: do information and theoretical knowledge matter?

“…In our study, the respondents were not able to go back and change their appraised value. Instead, the result is more in line with the result of Tang and Lin (2017) and George et al (2000), concluding a persistent anchor effect.…”