The Effect Of Self-construal And Cognitive Style On Individual Anchoring Bias

People's decisions tend to appear bias under uncertainty,anchoring and adjustment heuristic is one of the most popular decision-making biases,and the core content of this decision bias is anchoring effect.The study of anchoring effects has been around for nearly 40 years,though many researchers have explored the types of anchors,the mechanism and factors influencing the anchoring effect,little is known about how to eliminate or reduce this stubborn cognitive bias.This study aims to explore two new factors,self-construal and cognitive style,to reduce the anchoring bias,and to further deepen the understanding of anchoring effect as well as provide new ideas for how to eliminate the anchoring bias.This research includes a preliminary experiment and three formal experiments Because the research is more like a exploration study to eliminate the bias of anchoring effect,a relevant study was conducted at first step to investigate the correlation between two factors and anchor bias.On the basis of study I,two experimental study has been conducted to further explore the influence of the two factors on anchoring effect.The larger the anchoring score in the study,the greater difference between estimated value given by the individual and anchoring value given by the task,which means the less bias has appeared.The purpose of the preliminary study is to select anchoring questions.It determined nine questions,and each subsequent formal studies used three questions.Study 1 conducted a relevant research to investigate the correlation of anchoring bias and self-construal as well as the cognitive processing of individuals.This was a exploration study on the relationship between the newly introduced factors and the anchoring effect.The result showed that both factors are significantly correlated with the anchoring bias,indicating subsequent experimental study can be conducted.On the basis of the study 1,the direct effect of self-construal on the anchoring bias was explored in study 2.The independent and interdependent self-construal was primed to see whether the anchoring scores given by participants in two conditions has significant differences.The results showed that the interdependent self-construal participants have larger anchoring score than independent self-construal participants,that is,priming interdependent self-construal can make the individual appear less anchoring bias.Study 3 explored the direct effect of cognitive style on the anchoring bias.The holistic and analytic cognitive style have been primed to see whether the anchoring scores given by participants in two conditions has significant differences.The results showed that after controlling other variables,participants in holistic cognitive style condition has larger anchoring score than in analytic cognitive style condition,which means holistic cognitive processing style can reduce the effect of anchoring value.Three studies have concluded that self-construal and cognitive style are significantly correlated with individual anchoring bias.Less anchoring effect appears within interdependent self-construal individuals and holistic cognitive style individuals.Furthermore,adopting interdependent self-construal and holistic cognitive style can reduce anchoring effect.