environmental data

The Effect of Depth of Processing and Delay on the Anchoring Effect

The Effect of Depth of Processing and Delay on the Anchoring Effect

The anchoring effect is the phenomenon by which prior exposure to a value affects future estimates by “anchoring” individuals’ estimates to the originally presented value. In our study we wanted to explore how a time delay and variation in processing depth might impact the magnitude of the anchoring effect in the context of interpreting data on glacial melting rates. The experiment resulted in a significant anchoring effect, but no significant differences across conditions of delay or processing depth. We believe our study continues the work of past applied anchoring research, asking important questions regarding the influence of falsified data, and how the magnitude of anchoring might differ between groups with different established social beliefs.