Anchoring and adjustment during social inferences.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Simulation theories posit that individuals use their own mental states to infer the mental states of others.
• Understanding others requires correcting for perceived differences between oneself and the target individual.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate serial adjustment as a mechanism for correcting self-knowledge anchors during social inferences.
• To determine if the anchoring-and-adjustment process is employed when understanding the attitudes of similar versus dissimilar others.

Main Methods:

• Three studies were conducted where participants judged the attitudes of similar or dissimilar targets and reported their own attitudes.
• Reaction times and the discrepancy between self-reported and other-reported attitudes were analyzed.
• A positive linear relationship between reaction time and self-other discrepancy was examined as evidence for anchoring-and-adjustment.

Main Results:

• A positive linear relationship between reaction time and self-other discrepancy was consistently found.
• This relationship, indicative of anchoring-and-adjustment, was significant only when participants judged similar targets.
• No such relationship was observed when judging dissimilar targets.

Conclusions:

• Social cognition involves anchoring on self-knowledge and adjusting for differences, particularly when inferring the mental states of similar others.
• The findings support the role of the anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic in understanding similar individuals.
• This suggests a specific cognitive mechanism for mentalizing about similar others.