Tversky and Kahneman (1974) - Study | Psychology

IB Questions

• Cognitive Processing - Thinking and Decision-Making

• Reliability of Cognitive Processing - Biases in Thinking and Decision-Making

Name of the Researcher(s)

Tversky and Kahneman

Publication

1974

Aim

To investigate if anchoring bias has an effect on mathematical operations.

Method

True Experiment (Laboratory)

Procedure and Participants

Participants - High School Students

1. Participants were allocated to two conditions where they had to estimate the value of 8!:

   a. Ascending Condition (1×2×3×4×5×6×7×8)

   b. Descending Condition (8×7×6×5×4×3×2×1)

2. Researchers assumed the ascending condition would have a lower value while predicting the descending order to have a higher value.

Results

The actual value of 8! was 40320.

The ascending condition had an average value of 512 while the descending order had an average value of 2250.

Conclusion

Anchoring bias does in-fact have an effect on mathematical operations.

Strengths

+ Standardized —> Replicable
+ High Internal Validity

Limitations

- Low Ecological Validity
- Participant Variability