Anchor heuristics effect on heavy drinking in young people: Behavior economics perspective

There is a need for theory-based approaches to reduce heavy drinking in youths. Anchoring is a process in which people make estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield a final answer. In this study, we determined the effectiveness of anchoring heuristics in estimating the price of a bottle of alcohol and its effect on heavy drinking in young people. In a sample of 327 young people in Mexico, participants completed a survey on alcohol drinking and anchoring heuristics. We found that when the anchor was shown and the participants were explicitly directed to the anchor value, the mean estimates of the price reported by the participants increased, indicating that the participants were pulled up toward the anchor. Anchoring effects were found to affect on the willingness of the alcohol consumers to pay. In this context, alcohol prices (anchor condition) were higher for heavy drinking. We discuss the implications of our results and future directions for research on anchoring effects in heavy drinking. We concluded that anchoring provides novel insights into the consequences of anchoring effects in alcohol drinking.