By Nishant Kothary CHAPTER 12Lorenz knew this because in one experiment he became the first thing
they saw, and they followed him loyally from then on through adolescence.”^7
Over the past few decades, researchers have confirmed the role of
anchors in all walks of life through seemingly bizarre findings: we are
more likely to marry people whose names start with the first letter as our
own, pick products whose brand names share the first three letters with
our own, give favorable reviews to people who share our birthdate, and
more.^8 In fact, the effects of anchoring extend even into the moral realm as
Ariely demonstrated in his latest book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty:
How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. Ariely conducted a study
showing that you could almost eliminate cheating on tests — that is, you
could literally make people more honest — by simply having students sign
a simple honor code right before they took a test.
7 Dan Ariely, “The Fallacy of Supply and Demand”, Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edi-
tion: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, 2 Apr 2013, p. 27.
8 David Eagleman, “Mind: The Gap”, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, 15 May 2012, pp. 55-75.
A regular exam bubble sheet (top) and a modified bubble
sheet with honor code signature slot (bottom).