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Thinking Fast and Estimating Wrong (zapier.com)
2 points by m1245 on Nov 12, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment


Yes, that difference in estimating implementation time is part of a more general "anchoring" phenomenon. It's actually covered by a really great book called "Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion" [0]

Anchoring comes in many forms (and in asking questions like a survey should be carefully avoided) but one such form is when a person is shopping and being helped by a store clerk:

You're looking for a nice dress watch. Mentally, maybe you're hoping to spend around $300. You ask the clerk to show you some watches. They bring you to a $2000, very nice watch, but that's far more than you wanted to spend. So, next, they bring you to a $500, also very nice watch. Your expectations have already been anchored to a $2000 price tag, to this second model, at a quarter of the price, seems like a really great deal. You think maybe your $300 target was actually too low for what you're looking for, and perhaps spend the higher price.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Rober...




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