ANCHORING ERRORS IN CLINICAL-LIKE JUDGMENTS

Anchoring errors occur when the final judgment in a series is biased in the direction of the initial judgment. Subjects (142 undergraduates) made sequential judgments about each of four cases (Alcohol Abuse, Anxiety, Depression, Antisocial Behavior). After each of five segments of case material, subjects rated the case's severity and prognosis and their own confidence in these judgments. It was found that initial judgments significantly predicted most of the later judgments, which demonstrated the anchoring effect. The anchoring effect occurred most strongly for the Antisocial and Anxiety cases, moderately for the Alcohol case, and only modestly for the Depression case. Contrary to expectation, confidence was related negatively to the occurrence of the anchoring effect; that is, anchoring was highest when confidence was low. Implications of this study are discussed. Copyright © 1990 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company