Towards an Integrative Theory of Anchoring: Evidence For a Selective Accessibility Mechanism Across Anchor Types

For a decade, anchoring has been thought to be the product of two distinct processes: (a) the underadjustment associated with the anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic, when individuals provide their own anchors; and (b) selective accessibility, when an experiment provides an anchor. Simmons, LeBoeuf, and Nelson (2010) challenged this distinction by demonstrating that the anchoring-andadjustment heuristic may underlie all anchoring phenomena. The present research uses procedural priming to demonstrate that selective accessibility may also account for most anchoring phenomena. Therefore, and in accordance with the integrative theory of anchoring (ITA) proposed by Simmons, LeBoeuf, and Nelson (2010), the present findings show that the dichotomy conceptualizing selective accessibility and anchoring-and-adjustment as two distinct processes may be an over-simplification and that both should likely be thought of and studied as interacting processes.