Recovering the Anchoring of Economic Valuations
Material type: Continuing resourcePublication details: American Economic Journal: Microeconomics; 2024Description: 192-228ISSN:- 1945-7669
Item type | Current library | Call number | Vol info | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Article Index | Dr VKRV Rao Library | Vol. 16, No. 4 | Not for loan | AI998 |
We revisit the interpretation of the anchoring effect as evidence for nonexisting or arbitrary preferences. A theory of endogenous information acquisition (i.e., deliberation) is developed to rationalize the causal dependence of economic valuations on arbitrary anchor numbers. We identify theory-driven moderators to reconcile seemingly discrepant findings among original and follow-up anchoring experiments. We demonstrate in a meta-analysis that the anchoring effect may be systematically moderated by unintended experimental/individual differences. Moreover, apparent replication failure of the anchoring effect may be a false negative for self-countervailing treatment effects, because an anchoring treatment may cast opposite effects on different subjects within an experiment.
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