托福口语 Task 3

In psychology, the concept of 'anchoring effect' refers to the tendency for individuals to rely heavily on the first piece of information they encounter (the 'anchor') when making decisions. Once an anchor is set, subsequent judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and adjustments are often insufficient. This cognitive bias affects various domains, including pricing, negotiation, and everyday choices. The anchor can be arbitrary, yet it exerts a powerful influence on the final outcome.

Professor: Let me give you a classic example from a real estate study. Participants were shown a house and asked to estimate its value. Before they made their guess, they were given a random number—say, 500,000 dollars—and told that this was the asking price. Interestingly, even though the participants knew this number was random and not based on any appraisal, their final estimates clustered closely around that figure. Another group was given a much lower anchor, like 200,000 dollars, and their estimates were significantly lower. In fact, the same house was valued almost twice as high by the group with the high anchor. This shows how the initial number, even if meaningless, biases our subsequent reasoning. People adjust from the anchor, but they don't adjust enough, leading to skewed judgments.