An instructor was interested in students' perceptions of cheating. She wanted to protect the confidentiality of their responses, so she told students to write the last two digits of their student number (from 00 to 99) in a space at the top of their form. The first question the instructor asked them was to estimate from 0% to 100% the percentage of college students they believed cheat in their course work at least once a semester. Based on the research by Ariely and his colleagues (2003), students would MOST likely:
A) insufficiently adjust their estimates based on the anchor they use.
B) use anchoring values based on their personal preferences.
C) use anchors that are based on the ideals of optimal human performance.
D) overconfidently estimate what the anchors should be.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

According to the research by Ariely and his colleagues (2003), students tend to insufficiently adjust their estimates based on the anchor they use. In this case, the anchor is the last two digits of their student number, which is not likely to have any relevance to their perceptions of cheating. Therefore, students may use this anchor as a starting point and fail to adjust their estimates accordingly, leading to potentially inaccurate perceptions of the prevalence of cheating among college students.

An Instructor Was Interested in Students' Perceptions of Cheating