September 3, 2010 at 10:22What is the effect of the anchor and how can you use it
One interesting article “Anchoring effect” prompted the writing of this note . However, this is not a translation at all, since the text contains a lot of unnecessary information and research in the spirit of "British scientists have proved ..." This is more of a creative interpretation.
The article describes one very important psychological effect - the effect of the anchor or the effect of binding .
When they say to you "Just don’t think about the pink monkey" , you start thinking about it. But this is nothing, compared with a subconscious shift in the perception of numerical indicators.
In order to appreciate something, we need a starting point, a kind of anchor - something like a “pink monkey”.
For example, if you ask - how many people make up the population of Venezuela, what do you say? Get confused and think about it. And if you ask a question: “Is the population of Venezuela more or less than 65 million?” . The question takes on a different color, and your brain subconsciously starts to rely on the mentioned figure, even if it is taken "from the ceiling". What answer did you give in the first and second case? In the second case, the named number will be much larger than in response to the first version of the question.
Meanwhile, only 28 million people live in Venezuela.
Repeated studies have shown that our brain always clings to such anchors, a hint to which circumstances give us, and absolutely any.
In the book Judgment Under Uncertainty Heuristics and Biases, Kahneman, Tversky and Slovik write:
“In many cases, people evaluate something based on the initial value, which is then adjusted to the final answer. The initial value, or reference point, may be prompted in the formulation of the problem, or may be the result of our own calculations. In both cases, these calculations are generally unreasonable ... that is, different points of reference lead to different estimates, which are inclined to the original values ”
Their book also describes the following experiment.
Students were asked to recall the last three digits of their telephone number and were then asked when Attila destroyed Rome (the correct answer is 411 CE). At the same time, students with higher last numbers steadily named a later date than students with lower numbers.
Now think about how this rule is constantly applied in our lives. For example, you get on sale - not necessarily things, but in any Apple Store, etc. You see that a thing used to cost $ 100, but now it is sold for $ 49.99. And it doesn’t matter that such a price is too high for her - the figure 100 starts to play in your brain and, accordingly, a discount of more than 50%! And the more the initial cost of the product was, the more valuable the product is in your eyes and the more effective the sale looks! The goods are bought not for their final cost, but for the discount that was made regarding its full price.
Sellers also know another technique based on the effect of the anchor: to place very expensive products next to cheaper ones, but relatively expensive for their product category. An anchor is a very high price, which by its value eliminates the inflated cost of the second product, and you are ready to take “this flash drive for 99 bucks”, which is next to the new MacBook Air
Experiments have shown that even knowing this binding effect, people still subconsciously fall under its action. Then why not use it for your own purposes?
For example, in 1975 such an experiment was conducted.
Students were offered two hours a week , for two years , to work as volunteers - educators in the camp. Everyone refused. Then the researchers suggested that these students go to the camp once for two hours. Half of the students agreed.
While in the group where they had NOT previously been offered a job for two years, only 17% agreed to a two-hour trip.
Now are you convinced that you always need to ask for more ?
In its most general form, in order to use the anchor effect for your own purposes, you just need to put anchor anchors yourself, which will be guided by the people around you.
For example, the phrase "This work will cost you 10 thousand rubles, but I can do it for 5 thousand . " Or “Let's buy four new laptops in our department! Or one printer to me . " And also this: “Previously, our program loaded for 8 minutes, and now - only 5!”
Think not only about how you will now negotiate or how you will ask something from your superiors. Think about your everyday behavior.
You go to the same cafes, shops, buy the same food, the same brands.
On the one hand, all this has been tested by time, but doesn’t it seem that you are limiting yourself? Where are anchors anchored by anything unsupported? Perhaps staged by someone or something?
A good example here is the “price corridors” for goods that exist in our minds, that is, a kind of “fork” of prices, for which we consider it acceptable to buy this product. If it is cheaper - then it is suspicious, if it is more expensive - then it is simply not for our wallet. Price corridors are also the result of the pegging effect, therefore Prada bags for $ 1000 are the norm for us (although their real cost is comparable to the prices of low-cost brands), since they are always sold at such overpriced prices, and we do not see anything strange in this .
Our valuation is tied to goods, that is, in fact, based on the price already imposed on us. Try to evaluate the product “from scratch”, according to your own impressions - and you will be extremely surprised!
So I advise you in your spare time to think carefully and conduct a "reassessment of values" - where it is required.
The article describes one very important psychological effect - the effect of the anchor or the effect of binding .
What's the secret?
When they say to you "Just don’t think about the pink monkey" , you start thinking about it. But this is nothing, compared with a subconscious shift in the perception of numerical indicators.
In order to appreciate something, we need a starting point, a kind of anchor - something like a “pink monkey”.
For example, if you ask - how many people make up the population of Venezuela, what do you say? Get confused and think about it. And if you ask a question: “Is the population of Venezuela more or less than 65 million?” . The question takes on a different color, and your brain subconsciously starts to rely on the mentioned figure, even if it is taken "from the ceiling". What answer did you give in the first and second case? In the second case, the named number will be much larger than in response to the first version of the question.
Meanwhile, only 28 million people live in Venezuela.
Repeated studies have shown that our brain always clings to such anchors, a hint to which circumstances give us, and absolutely any.
In the book Judgment Under Uncertainty Heuristics and Biases, Kahneman, Tversky and Slovik write: “In many cases, people evaluate something based on the initial value, which is then adjusted to the final answer. The initial value, or reference point, may be prompted in the formulation of the problem, or may be the result of our own calculations. In both cases, these calculations are generally unreasonable ... that is, different points of reference lead to different estimates, which are inclined to the original values ”
Their book also describes the following experiment.
Students were asked to recall the last three digits of their telephone number and were then asked when Attila destroyed Rome (the correct answer is 411 CE). At the same time, students with higher last numbers steadily named a later date than students with lower numbers.
Simple tricks
Now think about how this rule is constantly applied in our lives. For example, you get on sale - not necessarily things, but in any Apple Store, etc. You see that a thing used to cost $ 100, but now it is sold for $ 49.99. And it doesn’t matter that such a price is too high for her - the figure 100 starts to play in your brain and, accordingly, a discount of more than 50%! And the more the initial cost of the product was, the more valuable the product is in your eyes and the more effective the sale looks! The goods are bought not for their final cost, but for the discount that was made regarding its full price.Sellers also know another technique based on the effect of the anchor: to place very expensive products next to cheaper ones, but relatively expensive for their product category. An anchor is a very high price, which by its value eliminates the inflated cost of the second product, and you are ready to take “this flash drive for 99 bucks”, which is next to the new MacBook Air
Ask for more!
Experiments have shown that even knowing this binding effect, people still subconsciously fall under its action. Then why not use it for your own purposes?
For example, in 1975 such an experiment was conducted.
Students were offered two hours a week , for two years , to work as volunteers - educators in the camp. Everyone refused. Then the researchers suggested that these students go to the camp once for two hours. Half of the students agreed.
While in the group where they had NOT previously been offered a job for two years, only 17% agreed to a two-hour trip.
Now are you convinced that you always need to ask for more ?
In its most general form, in order to use the anchor effect for your own purposes, you just need to put anchor anchors yourself, which will be guided by the people around you.
For example, the phrase "This work will cost you 10 thousand rubles, but I can do it for 5 thousand . " Or “Let's buy four new laptops in our department! Or one printer to me . " And also this: “Previously, our program loaded for 8 minutes, and now - only 5!”Where is your anchor?
Think not only about how you will now negotiate or how you will ask something from your superiors. Think about your everyday behavior.
You go to the same cafes, shops, buy the same food, the same brands.
On the one hand, all this has been tested by time, but doesn’t it seem that you are limiting yourself? Where are anchors anchored by anything unsupported? Perhaps staged by someone or something?
A good example here is the “price corridors” for goods that exist in our minds, that is, a kind of “fork” of prices, for which we consider it acceptable to buy this product. If it is cheaper - then it is suspicious, if it is more expensive - then it is simply not for our wallet. Price corridors are also the result of the pegging effect, therefore Prada bags for $ 1000 are the norm for us (although their real cost is comparable to the prices of low-cost brands), since they are always sold at such overpriced prices, and we do not see anything strange in this .
Our valuation is tied to goods, that is, in fact, based on the price already imposed on us. Try to evaluate the product “from scratch”, according to your own impressions - and you will be extremely surprised!
So I advise you in your spare time to think carefully and conduct a "reassessment of values" - where it is required.