A Nonexperimental Demonstration of Anchoring Bias

Abstract

Evidence for the existence of cognitive biases in controlled experimental tasks may not be evidence that such biases exist outside the laboratory. Observations of human decision-making in a nonexperimental setting (a television game show) indicated an apparently strong anchoring bias in the contestants' decisions. This spontaneous nonexperimental illustration of the anchoring bias is not only interesting in its own right but also supports assertions that experimental demonstrations of other cognitive biases may have corollaries in the real world.