Anchoring and Adjustment

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Anchoring and Adjustment

Written by Gui.do X Jansen,
August 2010
Written by a human, not by AI

Theory:

When we make decisions, we rely too heavily (or anchor) on one trait or piece of information. Especially when the situation is unknown, we tend to appraise information based on a single known anchor from which we then make relative adjustments (this is also known as the Focusing effect).

Application:

Provide your visitors with anchors to influence their decision making (eg. the original price of the product) or present an attribute/ number as being more important than it really is (eg. the number of megapixels on a DSLR camera). Even completely irrelevant numbers can influence the buyer if relevancy is suggested in some way.

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