When Uncle Sal tells his two nephews to choose a number between 1 and 100, they both usually guess numbers on the low side of the range. If, however, he tells them to guess a number between 100 and 1, they tend to guess closer to the high end of the range. This demonstrates how ________ influences thinking processes.
A) the availability heuristic
B) anchoring
C) the base rate fallacy
D) the confirmation bias
E) functional fixedness

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario demonstrates the anchoring effect, which is when an initial piece of information (in this case, the range of numbers given) serves as a reference point or "anchor" for subsequent judgments or decisions. The nephews' guesses are biased toward the anchor, with lower numbers selected when the anchor is high (100) and higher numbers selected when the anchor is low (1).

When Uncle Sal Tells His Two Nephews to Choose a Number