Tammy and Peter are asked to consider their addresses (note: Tammy's address is 6868 Sycamore Lane. Peter's address is 1400 Center Street), and then to estimate the distance between their homes. Tammy guesses 6000 miles. Peter guesses 2000 miles. This example best illustrates _________________.
A) The anchoring heuristic
B) Confirmation bias
C) The availability heuristic
D) The sunk cost effect
E) The representativeness heuristic

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of the anchoring heuristic, where individuals rely too heavily on an initial piece of information when making subsequent judgments. In this case, Tammy and Peter were asked to estimate the distance between their homes, but their estimates were influenced by the initial pieces of information they had about their own addresses. Tammy likely chose 6000 miles as an estimate because it sounded like a reasonable distance from what she knew about the location of her own address. Peter likely chose 2000 miles because it also sounded reasonable based on what he knew about the location of his own address.

Tammy and Peter Are Asked to Consider Their Addresses (Note