What is the anchor effect
The anchoring effect is a feature of human thinking that involves the tendency to evaluate an unknown value with previously provided or perceived numbers.
Anchoring occurs even if the initial numbers are sufficiently high and the person is aware of the anchor.
The use of anchors as starting points is fundamental in psychology, economics, and marketing. In addition, it has an impact on a person’s life, often negatively.
An explanation of this phenomenon was given by E. Aronson and T. Wilson in the textbook “Social Psychology. Psychological laws of human behavior in society.” Authors Fr.
In simple words, if you made a mistake when drawing up the conditions of the problem, there is no point in expecting the correct result after solving it.
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How to Influence a Man Using an “Anchor” This method is, according to the generally accepted opinion of experts, the most powerful technique for putting a person into a trance. Let's look at what it really is, how to do it correctly, and why this method, when performed correctly, is one of the most effective and powerful influence techniques. This thing doesn't work for most people. Many people know that there is such a thing, it can be done this way and that way, they do it, try to install an anchor, but it doesn’t work. Why? Because it's being done wrong.
What is an anchor ? An anchor is a sign. It could be a touch, movement, sound, or even a smell that reinforces a person's reaction to something you say. Have you ever experienced this: you are walking down the street and hear a melody playing somewhere in a music store. When it sounds, some kind of surge of emotions begins in your soul, your heart is pounding or aching, or you experience something similar. This is connected with some of your memories, and you don’t remember exactly what, but you are very clearly aware of what feeling it is associated with. With a feeling of some kind of nostalgia, sadness, love, joy or pain, disappointment and so on. Sometimes even smells cause a similar reaction. Alexey Chernozem: I am a very sensitive person to smells. Sometimes I go somewhere, smell something, and it makes me feel something. I don’t even realize what exactly this was connected with, what exact situation in my life, but I very clearly understand what feelings it causes inside me. This thing is called an anchor. That is, there is some kind of toggle switch installed in your subconscious, which, with a certain repetition of this sign, turns on and evokes certain feelings. It is this effect that manipulation works on. You set an anchor and when you repeat it at a convenient moment, it subconsciously reminds the person of your first conversation and evokes the same feelings in him. It's a little complicated, but by setting an anchor, you can evoke almost any feeling in a person. This is a very powerful and strong way of influencing and manipulating a person, so this technique is one of the most powerful. How it happens You communicate with a person and want to evoke a certain feeling in him. You evoke this feeling, set an anchor, and then, after some time, when you want to evoke the same feeling, you repeat, copy this anchor, this sign. And in a person it arises, but already connected with you. How to set an anchor You determine what you need to evoke in your interlocutor. For example, you are a woman and want to evoke a feeling of joy, love, and so on in the man you like. Let's take, say, the feeling of joy. The next step is to evoke in the person memories from his past life when he experienced these feelings. You simply ask him some leading questions when the person remembers those moments when his life was filled with joy. It is clear that almost all of us have experienced a feeling of joy, but there are situations when a person has never experienced something. For example, he never loved. Then you ask him other questions, simulate this situation. That is, you say: “This is how you think you would feel if you were in love?” Moreover, you formulate the question in such a way that the person will now experience it. Not sometime later, when he comes home. You need to evoke this feeling of joy and love at the exact moment when he communicates with you. And by formulating questions, you thus evoke precisely this feeling from him. At the peak of experiences, you establish an anchor. That is, let’s say, turn on some music, make some kind of gesture, sign, light a romantic candle, it doesn’t matter, all this can be an anchor. But one of the most powerful anchors and the most effective is the kinesthetic anchor, that is, touch. This is one of the strongest anchors because it is very difficult to resist. How to Establish a Kinesthetic Anchor At the peak of the experiences and memories you evoke, touch the person. It is clear that this needs to be done in some socially acceptable places. Experts say that a place just above the elbow works very well. Firstly, this place is socially acceptable, and secondly, after some time it is very easy to repeat. It doesn’t matter how the person sits towards you, sideways, with his back, and so on. It's basically very easy for you to reach out and get to his elbow. Let's sum it all up: Decide what feeling you need to evoke. You evoke it in the form of some memories of a past life when he experienced this feeling. At the peak of your experience, you somehow touch it and thereby establish an anchor. The next time you communicate with this person and you touch in the same place where you set the anchor, he will subconsciously have the same feeling. Moreover, this feeling will already be associated with you, because he will not remember from what perspective you looked at it the first time. Remember what we said - sometimes you feel a smell, but don’t remember what life situation it is connected with specifically? You clearly realize that this feeling causes either joy or sadness, and so on. The same thing will happen in this situation. A person will not understand specifically what situation this is connected with, but he will very clearly feel within himself what it is. If in the first conversation you managed to evoke a feeling of love in him, then when you repeat this manipulation in the next conversation, your interlocutor will experience the same feelings.
How to Get the Key to a Man's Heart Using a Simple Conversation In a conversation, in any conversation in general, try and try to make it follow the pattern, 40X60. That is, you speak 40%, your interlocutor should speak 60%. In order to pull out the key to his soul, you need to ask the person leading questions. Moreover, it is better to do this by bringing him to memories of childhood, youth, and so on. Draw his attention to a time when emotions were very strong, when this person may have been experiencing some unfulfilled desires, and so on. Regressing to childhood is a very powerful tool for controlling a person. Example from Alexey Chernozem: I have a women’s project where I advise women. So, I always recommend giving certain gifts to men. What do women or men do when they want to impress? They go and buy some very expensive thing and bring it to their partner. That is, they make some attempt to buy favor. In fact, it doesn't work and only causes surprise and gratitude, and not at all what you expected. She/he will be able to wear this thing, but it will not evoke certain emotions in her/him. Your task is to touch upon exactly those emotions that are aimed at arousing sympathy for you. So, we always recommend giving gifts that may not be very expensive, but those that will hit right in the heart. Another example from Alexey Chernozem: During a consultation I had one woman who told me: “That’s what I should do, I give him such pleasant surprises, I bought a gift, put it in the slot for bags in the supermarket, gave the key to the security guard, made an agreement with him, at home I wrote a note saying that if you go there, you will find something there. He went, under some porch he found another sign, then a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and finally came to this store. The guard had to solemnly hand over the key, the recipient had to look into this cell, find a surprise and just be amazed..." And imagine her surprise when the man didn’t even go there. She came all in tears and bewilderment, why did this happen? We often do those things that we want, and not those that are interesting, profitable, or bring joy to that person . Therefore, gifts should be focused primarily on the person to whom they are presented. What am I getting at with all this? When you give a gift, you need to find out some unrealized desires of the person, something that comes from childhood. What emotions did a person experience in childhood or adolescence, what did he dream and fantasize about, what did he passionately desire, but perhaps never received. Bring those memories and unrealized ideas into your gift. I advised the woman who was in consultation with me to talk to her man. As a result of their conversation, it turned out that he really dreamed of learning to skate. His father promised to teach him, but was unable to do so due to his sudden death. The man never learned to do this. She bought him skates and it was like a bomb exploded. When you do such things, a person thinks that you have looked into his soul, where he does not allow anyone, you will immediately receive the status of a “wizard” in his eyes, and, most likely, a sharp change in his attitude towards you. This is the power contained in a person’s memories.” Decide what feelings you want to evoke in a person. By asking leading questions and bringing him back to memories, you can evoke both negative emotions by immersing yourself in moments of the past that caused pain to the person, and positive feelings if you bring to the surface those moments from the past that were joyful and happy for the person. Of course, in this regard, childhood memories are much stronger and more acute. But you can work with any other moments in a person’s history. When a person returns to the elated sensations of those days, his emotional uplift will be consolidated with your image. Therefore, he will associate you with something kind and good, echoes of which rose from the depths of his memory.
Series of messages “Pavel Rakov/Alexey Chernozem”:
Part 1 - OUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCES OUR INCOME Part 2 - To attract a successful man, is it enough to simply increase your femininity? ... Part 32 - Man's love. Part 33 - 5 main rules for managing us - men Part 34 - How to Influence a Man with the Help of an “Anchor” Part 35 - 5 Main Factors in Inducing Sympathy in Men. Part 36 - Is it decent to Influence Men... Part 46 - How to “Make” Your Husband Earn More? Part 47 - How to choose the right woman for a long-term relationship and family life? Part 48 - The secret to treating men is simple
Examples of the anchoring effect
The anchoring effect models a certain line of human behavior, with the help of which one can influence his further actions. This facilitates manipulation not only of an individual, but also of large groups of people.
We come across examples of manipulation of human communities more than once.
Let's look at some of them:
Using the anchor effect in advertising
- One well-known company, a mobile operator, had a need to increase tariffs.
Fearing customer outrage, employees deliberately spread false information that tariffs would increase by 10%. In this situation, the number 10 acts as an anchor.
After some time, the company officially denied the rumors that had spread about a significant increase in the price for the services provided. In fact, tariffs will increase by only 2%.
What types of anchors are there?
So, an anchor is often a good thing. Therefore, it is possible and necessary to use the anchoring method in life. A simple technique allows you to increase your productivity, productivity, reduce the level of everyday stress and allow you to quickly switch from one mood to another.
4 types of anchors in time management :
- Visual. Color, brightness of lighting, image, picture - any visual impression that resonates in memory with a pleasant or negative moment.
- Auditory. Music, birdsong, voice timbre, the sound of the sea, the crackling of wood in a fire - everything that can be associated with significant memorable events.
- Kinesthetic. Touching, massage, cold or heat, stringiness or viscosity, rigidity or tenderness - this includes skin, tactile memory with which emotion is associated.
- Olfactory. All types of smells and aromas - from pre-storm air to spices and perfume.
Complex anchors work very well: not just coffee, but hot coffee with the smell of cinnamon from your favorite mug.
By the way, specialization in anchoring technique is very important. After all, if reaching a resourceful state is the main goal, then you need to clearly grade the place and time of action. It’s unlikely that anyone would like to fall into concentration at work on the beach by the sea just from the smell of coffee. But if “working” coffee is a certain type and only a specific mug, then the smell alone cannot work as a simple anchor.
So the anchor should be:
- complex;
- specialized;
- understandable;
- evoking lasting associations.
And immediately, of course, the question arises: is it possible to form the necessary anchor for yourself. That is, so that anchoring arises not under the influence of a spontaneous state, but of one’s own free will?!
Naturally, yes!
Using the anchor effect in philanthropy
The anchoring effect has long been known to be widely used by charities. Sending letters asking for donations has become popular in Western countries.
People who were asked to donate between $10 and $50 generated greater profits than those who were asked to donate between $1 and $10.
Experiments
Scientists, through a series of experiments, have substantiated the phenomenon of anchoring, even if disproportionately high or low numbers are used as an anchor.
It is worth noting that the fact of anchoring continued to be noted even after the subjects became aware of it. Let's take a closer look at a few examples of experiments:
UN experiment
Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky conducted an unusual experiment. They asked the subjects the following question: “What is the percentage of African countries that are members of the UN?”
Reviews and comments
Have you ever experienced the anchoring effect? Share your thoughts on the topic of this article below.
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Planning error
- Representativeness heuristic
- Pygmalion effect
- Halo effect
- 7 cognitive distortions that prevent you from making good decisions
- Kahneman's Fallacies: Should You Think Slowly and Decide Fast?
- Behavioral Economics
- The Rosenthal effect or how to wisely lead a team
- Daniel Kahneman “Think Slowly... Decide Fast” - summary of the book
- Cognitive economics: the science of thinking
Key words:1Communication
The anchoring effect in NLP
In NLP, a psychological anchor means a certain action that causes associations in a person with specific emotions.
Even the most stable anchors have a specific development cycle. They are short-term and long-term:
- short-term anchors become insignificant without systematic reinforcement;
- long-term anchors can be fixed for life.
It is impossible to install an anchor intentionally, without the necessary skills.
Types of anchors
There are several types of anchors:
- Visual. In this case, the image acts as a signal. For example, while vacationing at a resort, you walked past a flower bed with scarlet roses every day. The result is a visually positive experience. And now, every time you see red roses, you will experience positive emotions that bring back pleasant memories.
- Auditory. This anchor is associated with a sound, often a specific melody. Its use is possible during a romantic meeting by turning on a certain piece of music. In such a case, the positive emotions associated with falling in love will be anchored in the music. Every time you listen to it, pleasant memories will emerge.
- Kinesthetic. Various touches are the driving factor here. In case of strong emotional experience, you should touch any part of the body, for example, the right little finger or rub the tip of the nose. It is possible to experience such an emotion again, you just need to repeat these actions.
- Olfactory. An example of such an anchor is the smell of tangerines and spruce. We associate it with the New Year, the smell of barbecue with the May holidays.
It is worth noting that many scientists consider the anchoring effect to be unscientific. But, despite this statement, in 2001. American scientists noted that the best result in negotiations is achieved by the side that first announced specific figures. This is due to the fact that they acquire the status of a kind of starting point around which bargaining takes place.
The greatest effect is achieved with complex anchors that can be heard, seen, felt and smelled at the same time.
The essence of the anchoring method
To anchor in psychology means to evoke a certain stimulus that comes from the outside: a word, a touch, an image, etc. Each such state generates in the subject a stable associative connection with a specific sensation, event or person.
For example, a married couple, having been married for several decades, hearing the favorite melody of their youth, involuntarily thoughts are transported to those years. In this situation, the NLP anchor is presented in the form of a song - a sound stimulus, the reaction to which is memories.
It is important to grasp that if this melody did not evoke any feelings, it would not be so well remembered. NLP anchoring occurs due to any positive or negative stimuli, necessarily accompanied by a strong emotional response.
A key role is played by experiences that trigger psychophysiological mechanisms inside the body: the release of active substances into the blood, incl. hormones, acceleration or deceleration of the heartbeat, tension or relaxation of different muscle groups, etc. This causes various reactions, expressed by certain memories and even behavior. It follows from this that NLP anchors do not simply generate some thought or emotion, but have a complex effect on the psychophysiological state of the entire organism. This influence can be both positive and negative:
- The first, as in the already mentioned example with the melody of youth, can lift your spirits, increase muscle activity, awaken a surge of strength and even give motivation to action.
- If negative, a feeling of depression, anxiety, decreased energy potential, as well as other negative changes in the psychophysiological state may appear. There are many examples of such anchoring: a photograph of a loved one from whom life has separated, a reminder of a long-forgotten failure, and even a material object that is associated with an unpleasant past experience.
Sometimes a person is influenced by an anchor unconsciously: a song plays on public transport that mentions the name of a person associated with bad memories. For those around her, she played in the background, i.e. didn't even come into the spotlight. However, unconsciously it was recorded by someone, which set into motion multidirectional mechanisms within the body, and as a result, decreased mood, fatigue, irritability, etc. The person himself will not even understand why his condition has changed, because... the anchor was perceived unconsciously. This happens for two reasons:
- with deep emotional involvement;
- due to repeated repetition of a certain stimulus.
If the first reason was discussed above, then the second must be considered separately.
Repeated repetition causes a certain reaction even if the subject does not experience emotional involvement - for example, the influence of advertising. The attitude towards it after the first viewing is skeptical, but when it appears on television, in newspapers, on the radio, on the Internet and on every fence, interest in this product or service inevitably arises. In this case, it is not the quality of the stimulus that matters, but its quantity.
The anchoring technique in NLP is well known and is used in a variety of fields: marketing, psychology, business, education, etc. These methods can be used not only by specialists, but also by ordinary people. Anchoring is useful both in interaction with other people and in order to induce a positive attitude and replenish energy resources.
