托福口语 Task 3

In psychology, the concept of 'anchoring bias' refers to the tendency for individuals to rely too heavily on an initial piece of information (the 'anchor') when making decisions. Once an anchor is set, subsequent judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, but adjustments are often insufficient, leading to skewed outcomes. Anchoring can occur in various contexts, such as pricing, negotiations, and estimates, and it demonstrates how subtle cues can significantly influence human reasoning.

Professor: Let me give you a real-world example. In a study, participants were asked to guess the price of a bottle of wine. Before they guessed, they were shown a random number—either a high number like 100 dollars or a low number like 10 dollars—that had nothing to do with the actual wine. Those who saw the high number guessed the wine cost around 80 dollars, while those who saw the low number guessed around 20 dollars. The actual price was 30 dollars. So, the initial number they saw acted as an anchor, pulling their estimates toward it. Even though they knew the anchor was arbitrary, they couldn't fully adjust away from it. This shows how anchoring bias operates in everyday decisions, like shopping or valuing products.