An Anchoring and Adjustment Model of Spousal Predictions

How do we predict the preferences of other people? This article proposes an anchoring and adjustment process where we anchor on our own preferences and attempt to adjust for ways in which we are likely to differ from others. In five experiments, 220 husbands and wives predicted the preferences of their spouses for 20 new product concepts. Both husbands and wives anchored heavily on their own preferences. Moreover, they consistently adjusted for beliefs about the relative influence that their spouses would wield on the purchase decision for each of the concepts. On average, people were not very accurate in predicting spousal preferences. Almost half of the people would have been more accurate by simply reporting their own preferences. Most of the subjects had difficulty isolating systematic adjustment factors that were more diagnostic of spousal preferences than their own preferences.