STUDIES - Tversky and Kahneman (1974) Flashcards

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1
Q

Aim

A
  • To demonstrate how the anchoring bias affects students when solving a maths problem
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2
Q

Procedure

A

SAMPLE

  • High school students

STEPS
Participants were allocated to 2 groups:

  • Group 1 (ascending condition): Participants were asked to estimate the value of 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 in 5 seconds
  • Group 2 (descending condition): Participants were asked to estimate the value of 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 in 5 seconds
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3
Q

Results

A
  • Group 1 (ascending condition): Median was 512
  • Group 2 (descending condition): Median was 2250
  • Actual value: 40320
  • Group 2 had a median 4 times higher than group 1
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4
Q

Findings

A
  • Since we read left to right, group 1 used “1” as an anchor and estimated a lower value than the group that started with “8” as the anchor
  • First number seen biases the estimate of the value by participant
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5
Q

Strengths

A
  • High replicability: Very simple experiment that allows us to establish the reliability of the results
  • High internal validity: The study was highly controlled as results were quantitative and easy to calculate, and it can be inferred that anchor was cause of estimates by students (cause-and-effect relationship)
  • Use of median: Researchers used median to report the data, allowing them to diminish the influence of outliers
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6
Q

Limitations

A
  • Low ecological validity: The situation is very artificial, as it is unrealistic to be given only 5 seconds to estimate the value of something
  • Application of findings: Questionable to what extent they can be applied
  • Low internal validity: Participant variability may have influenced the results due to the design used (independent samples), it would have been better to use matched pairs design to have 2 groups with an equal level of maths
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