Experimental analysis of anchoring effect in the consumer decision making process

Experimental economics, which does not accept the concept of full rationality that is valid in neo-classical economics, argued that consumers who are decision makers are not independent in the decision-making process, but are influenced by their language, culture and beliefs. Experimental economics, by examining human behavior in a controllable environment, tries to prove experimentally whether people make decisions in a fully rational way. The aim of this study is to determine whether individuals exhibit irrational behaviors rather than fully rational behaviors in the decision-making process and whether they are affected by the traps in the market that cause them to exhibit irrational behaviors. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to 392 students studying at Şırnak University. In the experiment, it was tried to test whether individuals were affected by the traps in the decision-making process by using the anchoring trap in the market. Male and female students participating in the survey were divided into two as control and experimental groups in a mixed manner, while an anchor was not given to the control group in order to test the anchoring trap, the last three digits of their phone numbers were asked to the experimental group as an anchor. First of all, it was checked whether the data collected by the survey method showed a normal distribution. Then, it was analyzed whether there was a correlation between the given anchor and the amount they wanted to pay for the products. In addition, it was analyzed whether there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups between anchoring and the prices that individuals were willing to pay with the Mann-Whitney U test. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that there is a weak positive correlation between the prices that individuals are willing to pay and the anchor. As a result of the anchoring effect, in parallel with the studies in the literature, it was determined that the anchoring effect was valid in some products and not in some products.