Differences in anchoring effect on willingness-to-pay in the context of decision-making styles

Decision-making constitutes a significant aspect of human behavior. A variety of biases affect human judgment, with the anchoring effect being a significant one, where individuals tend to lean their judgment towards a value initially presented, known as the anchor. The aim of this study is to explore how anchors influence economic behavior and specifically, on consumer valuations (Willingness-to-Pay) across different types of anchors and levels of product familiarity. Another key aim is to examine how individual differences in decision-making styles are related to WTP. The sample of the study consists of adults between the ages of 18-30. After getting confirmation of participation to attend this study, they proceeded to access the anchor paradigm in an online platform. They were then randomly assigned in equal numbers to one of the four groups manipulated, with both relevance and level of the anchor as the between-subject variables, and familiarity as the within-subject variable. Then, they completed the Decision-Making Styles Scale, and Demographic Information Form, respectively. A combined approach of experimental and correlational methods was utilized to investigate variables related to WTP. The results indicated that higher levels of anchoring significantly increased the WTP for various consumer goods. Furthermore, participants in the higher irrelevancy condition stated significantly higher WTP than those exposed to relevant information. The results also indicated that higher levels of familiarity significantly increased the WTP. Contrary to expectations, analysis of the correlations between decision-making styles and WTP revealed no significant correlation. These findings have been discussed in the context of the relevant literature.