Johanna Murray, a climate campaigner at The National Footprint Foundation, is known in her organization to be a campaigner of caliber and high performance. She has strong networks with the Ministry of Environment and allies with several environmental organizations in the country. Over the years, she has gained substantial knowledge on the issue of climate change. However, recently when she prepared a consolidated report on a conference she attended on climate change, it reflected major loopholes and limited information from the conference. Which of the following, if true, substantiates that Johanna had anchoring bias?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information, refers to anchoring bias. If Johanna were moved by the arguments put forward by the first speaker, then this supports the argument that she had anchoring bias because this may have led her to prepare a report which had limited information and focused on initial parts of the conference. If Johanna participated actively in the interactive session conducted at the end, then this works against the argument. It is irrelevant to the argument that the speakers at the conference consisted of renowned environmental scientists and activists. If Johanna has attended several conferences where the panel consisted of eminent scientists, it works against the argument because it indicates that she is used to attending similar conferences and not overwhelmed by the presence of eminent scientists. Hence, this weakens the argument. Johanna being shocked by the startling facts shown during the concluding session weakens the argument as it shows that she did not fixate only on the information presented at the beginning of the conference.

Johanna Murray, a Climate Campaigner at the National Footprint Foundation