Priming, Anchoring and Relativity Flashcards
priming
a nonconscious form of human memory concerned with perceptual identification of words and objects - not restricted to words
Experiment by Bargh et Al 1996
30 students from NYU
randomly assigned to either an elderly prime condition or a neutral prime condition group
primed group shown words such as old, lonely, grey but no mention of slow
then asked to walk along a corridor and were timed
those exposed to the elderly words took significantly longer to walk
asked if scrambled sentence had affected them at all and if they noticed the tasks contained words relevant to elderly stereotypes
all said the words didn’t impact them
results suggest that exposing individuals to a series of words linked to a particular stereotype influences behaviour non-consciously
“elderly priming stimuli activated the elderly stereotype in memory and, participants subsequently acted in ways consistent with that of the activated stereotype”
conclusions of priming experiment
what we have is the influence of an action by an idea - not even directly
have no idea we are being influenced
with money, experiments proved that those primed by money made them hungrier, less helpful and face them a higher pain threshold - hand in ice experiment, dropping papers in office experiment
“living in a culture that surrounds us with reminders of money may shape our behaviour and our attitudes in ways that we do not know about and which we may not be proud” - TF&S
Adam Smith on priming and self-interest
” it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baler that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest
Economics students and self-interest
in Germany, research found that economics students were more likely than others to be corruptible and give a biased answer if it was in their own interest
economics profs gave significantly less Money to charity than their worse paid colleagues in other depts - doughnut economics
Robert Frank on self-interest
“the pernicious effect of self-interest theory has been most disturbing. By encouraging us to expect the worst in others, it brings out the worst in us: dreading the role of the chump, we are often loath to need to our nobler instincts”
Anchoring effect
provides “one of the most reliable and robust results of experimental psychology” - TF&S
e.g is height of tallest redwood more/less than 1200 feet?
what is your estimate for the height of this tree?
- with 1200 feet as a suggestion, those estimated at 844 feet whilst those given 180 feet as an initial suggestion estimated 282 feet
anchoring ratio
= difference of suggestions/difference in answers given
in the case where a letter suggests you donate £100 instead of £5, people are likely to donate more
even if the anchor is totally arbitrary and unrelated to the decision process it’ll still work
e.g German judges
with an average of 15 or over of experience read a description of a woman who had been caught shoplifting then rolled a pair of dice that would either land on a 3 or 9
judges were then asked whether they would sentence woman to prison sentence of more or less than shown on dice
then asked to specify their sentence
those who rolled a 9 on average went for 8 months
those who rolled 3 went for 5 months
e.g real estate agents
Tucson, Arizona, real estate agents got same information on house expect the listing price
were asked to value the house
listing prices they were told were $119,900, $129,900, $139,000 and $149,000
experts estimates were much higher depending on their told listing prices
a $30,000 increase in listing price increased their estimates by $15,864 on average
experts were less affected by anchoring than non-experts
81% of the experts said they weren’t affected by the primer
- anchoring is particularly salient when we’re introduced to new products that are unlike anything we’ve seen before (non-experts)
e.g buying a computer
we want to buy a computer and the 1st one we see is for £350 - this becomes the anchor
from then on, all other computers are compared to that price - becomes our reference point
the dangerous part of anchoring is that they can then become the basis for future decisions from that point onwards
e.g moving from Hull to London - try to spend similar amount of money on a house (even if they can afford more) and end up with a huge reduction in the standard of living
putting a high limit on products (e.g saying there’s a limit of 12 cans of something) people on average buy twice as much than they would without a limit
Anchoring summary
an anchor can come from either the first price we see, like the recommended retail price and also from the price we have payed in the past
How loyal are we to initial anchors when presented with a new one - Ariely’s experiment
2 groups of actors asked if they would be exposed to a horrible sound for 30 seconds
Group 1 asked then to hear the noise again for 90 cents , if not what would be their lowest price
Group 2 offered 10 cents - 90 cents wanted more to listen to the sound
- then asked to listen to another sound for 30 seconds
- both groups offered 50 cents to listen, if not what’s the lowest amount (change in anchor)
“when we compared the prices, the 10 cents group offered much lower bids than the 90 cents group”
“the first anchor in this annoying sound category predominated” - Ariely
“what consumers are willing you pay can easily by manipulated and this means that consumers don’t in fact have a good handle on their own preferences and the prices they are willing to pay for different goods and experiences” - Ariely
The Truth of Relativity
when it comes to making decisions about what to buy etc we rarely make decisions in absolute terms rather we do so in relative terms
we try to compare items and make relative choices
in business it can sometimes make sense to introduce products just to make other products more attractive
(take economist subscription example)
- on occasion you can’t simply assess the contribution of a product just by the sales, rather it might be the sales of other similar products
Economist subscription example (argues against neoclassical)
students offered a choice between
- web only at $59
- print and web at $125
68% went for cheaper web only
then researchers threw in a 3rd option to make print and web look better
- web only at $59
- print and web at $125
- Print only at $125
preferences have changed
- 84% went for web and print compared to 32% before
- traditional economics would say that the introduction of an inferior product shouldn’t change your choice
BUT you can manipulate consumers’ choices by introducing an inferior product
