Many things can influence how an individual will make a decision (Greenstein & Velazquez, 2017). One factor that influences decision making is the anchor bias. An anchor bias is when a participant is given an initial piece of information and changes their estimate based on that initial information. For example, when people are told the Mississippi river is longer than 70 miles, they are then more likely to give a lower estimate of how long the river is when asked (Jacowitz &Kahneman, 1995). Additionally, previous research suggests that individuals were less susceptible to the anchor bias when they were angry (Jung & Young, 2012). The current study utilized autobiographical writing to induce an angry or neutral mood to evaluate the susceptibility to the anchor bias. Participants consisted of Carroll College students who completed a mood induced writing task, a Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and an Anchor Questionnaire (Jacowitz & Kahneman, 1995). Participants in the angry mood condition scored significantly higher on negative affect compared to those in the neutral condition. However, there was no significant difference in the anchor index scores between the mood conditions. The lack of a significant result may be due to the low power. Future studies should increase the number of participants and include additional measures on an anchor questionnaire.
