In negotiations, first offers serve as potent anchors. After receiving a first offer, although people clearly have a choice about what amount to counteroffer, they often fail to adjust away from the first offer. We identify a simple nudge, a reminder that people have a choice, that can reduce the anchoring bias. We argue that a choice nudge leads people to think of more potential counteroffers that they can make, which reduces the extent to which they are anchored to the first offer. Seven studies conducted with US residents recruited from online research platforms tested this hypothesis. We found that merely reminding buyers that they have a choice led them to anchor away from sellers' first offers in a painting buying task (Studies 1 and 2) and a used car negotiation (Study 3). A choice reminder nudged people to consider more counteroffers (Study 4a) and asking people to consider more counteroffers reduced the anchoring bias (Study 4b). Consistent with the idea that thinking of counteroffers requires cognitive resources, we found that the effect of a choice nudge is attenuated under high cognitive load (Study 5). Study 6 ruled out an alternative motivational account for the choice nudge effect. This research contributes to the choice mindset literature by showing that highlighting the semantic concept of choice can help correct a pervasive decision-making bias, and to the anchoring literature by showing that thinking of more counteroffers can reduce the anchoring bias, at least in contexts in which the direction of adjustment from the anchor is known.

中文翻译：

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选择不锚定：选择心态可以减少锚定偏差

在谈判中，最初的报价是强有力的锚。在收到第一个报价后，尽管人们显然可以选择还价的金额，但他们往往无法适应第一个报价。我们确定了一个简单的推动，提醒人们有选择，可以减少锚定偏差。我们认为，选择推动会让人们想到他们可以提出的更多潜在还价，这降低了他们对第一个报价的锚定程度。对从在线研究平台招募的美国居民进行的七项研究测试了这一假设。我们发现，仅仅提醒买家他们有一个选择，就会导致他们在绘画购买任务（研究 1 和 2）和二手车谈判（研究 3）中放弃卖家的首次报价。选择提醒促使人们考虑更多还价（研究 4a），并要求人们考虑更多还价减少了锚定偏差（研究 4b）。与思考还价需要认知资源的观点一致，我们发现选择推动的效果在高认知负荷下会减弱（研究 5）。研究 6 排除了选择助推效应的替代动机解释。这项研究通过表明强调选择的语义概念可以帮助纠正普遍的决策偏差，对选择心态文献做出了贡献；通过表明考虑更多还价可以减少锚定偏差，至少在以下情况下，对锚定文献做出了贡献：锚点的调整方向是已知的。