Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 233Anchors acquired from external sources can bias both the external search for further informa-tion and the retrieval of additional information from memory.^298 However, some easily acquired
values will not serve to anchor the audience’s estimates. Audiences will not use a value as an anchor
if it is expressed on a different scale than the value the audience is trying to estimate. For example,
an audience would not use a value expressed as a percentage as an anchor to estimate a value
expressed in dollars.^299
The audience’s tendency to anchor on whatever information is presented often makes theminsensitive to missing attribute information, an effect called omission neglect. Insensitivity to
missing attributes and their values occurs because missing information is not salient,^300 and its
implications are diffi cult to comprehend.^301 For novice consumers, one consequence of omis-
sion neglect is that it leads them to make decisions based solely on the attributes and attribute
values presented to them.^302 Moreover, the presented attributes and values actually interfere
with their ability to identify missing attributes.^303 Even when consumers do identify missing
attributes, they typically adjust insuffi ciently for the implications of those attributes and their
values.^304
The Recall Bias: The Power of Easily Recalled Information
Audiences often make decisions based upon the subjective ease with which they can retrieve
schema slot values from their memories. For example, the easier it is for voters to retrieve arguments
either for or against an issue, the more confi dent they are that those arguments are valid,^305 and the
more likely they are to be persuaded by them.^306 Decisions about risk,^307 stereotypes,^308 interper-
sonal closeness,^309 and consumer products^310 are all infl uenced by ease of recall.
Conversely, the more diffi cult it is for the audience to recall information about something, theless they like it and the less confi dent they are in it. British students who were asked to retrieve eight
positive attribute values regarding Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the
time, tended to have a more negative attitude about him than students who were asked to retrieve
only two positive attribute values.^311 German investors liked mutual funds less after they listed
many of the funds’ advantages than after they listed just a few.^312 And American men inferred that
they were at less risk of heart disease after they recalled many risk-increasing behaviors than after
they recalled only two or three such behaviors.^313 Interestingly, feelings of power make audience
members even more likely to base their decisions on the subjective ease with which information
comes to mind.^314
The Imagination Bias: The Power of Easily Imagined Information
Audiences may make decisions based upon the subjective ease with which they can imagine infor-
mation that fi lls schema slots.^315 Voters who were asked to imagine the outcome of a presidential
election later rated it more probable that the candidate they had imagined winning would actu-
ally win than voters who had not been asked to imagine the election’s outcome.^316 Audiences
who were asked to imagine experiencing a disease judged themselves as more likely to catch the
disease.^317 Audiences asked to imagine winning a contest or being arrested for a crime decided it
was more probable that those events could happen to them. Homeowners asked to imagine enjoy-
ing the benefi ts of a subscription to cable TV were later more likely to subscribe.^318 Moreover,
followers fi nd leaders who infuse their speeches with words such as dream and imagine to be more
persuasive than leaders leave them out.^319