Strack and Mussweiler (1997)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To see how the anchoring effect could influence guesses of Mahatma Gandhi’s age when he died.

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

60 male and female participants at a German students.

• They were asked two questions.
• Half of the participants were asked if Gandhi was older or younger than 9 years old when he died (low anchor, implausible.
• The other half were asked if he was older or younger than 140 years old (high anchor, implausible).

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

Participants in the high anchor condition guessed on average he was 67 years old, whereas those in the lower anchor condition guessed he was 50 years old when he died.

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

The study demonstrates anchoring effect- numerical information given to participants before making a judgement can influence their later judgements. It also shows it can have an effect even if the numbers are implausible. The anchor clearly influenced the final value offered.

Question 5

Strengths

Answer 5

• Internal validity.
• Lab experiment- low confounding variable chance.
• Cause and effect.

Question 6

Limitations

Answer 6

• Anchoring may have only had an effect as it is outside the range of acceptable answers.
• Demand characteristics.
• Opportunity sampling (bias).