<p>I've recently been dabbling in the behavioral literature, reading about cognitive biases such an anchoring, when one of my friends asked me how this phenomenon differed from the classical cognitive psychology construct of priming. It struck me as odd that I couldn't form an explanation that convincingly tweezed them apart: both appear to be about prior exposure to a stimulus changing the reaction to subsequent stimuli. All I can come up with is that anchoring is generally used in a more narrow context while priming seems more like an umbrella term. That, or they could just be field specific terms for the same underlying cognitive processes. <strong>Is there some consensus as to how anchoring and priming are related?</strong></p>

<p>One relevant <a href="http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/hypothesis-consistent_testing_and_semantic_priming_in_the_anchoring_paradigm-_a_selective_accessibility_model.pdf">paper I've found</a> suggests that priming (along with hypothesis testing) constitute the underlying mechanisms that operate within the anchoring <em>paradigm</em>. However, this is just one (rather old) paper, so I think question as to the consensus viewpoint is still valid. </p>

<cognitive-psychology><terminology><anchoring><behavioral-economics>
What's the relationship between priming and anchoring?
zergylord
# What's the relationship between priming and anchoring?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-10-17)

I've recently been dabbling in the behavioral literature, reading about cognitive biases such an anchoring, when one of my friends asked me how this phenomenon differed from the classical cognitive psychology construct of priming. It struck me as odd that I couldn't form an explanation that convincingly tweezed them apart: both appear to be about prior exposure to a stimulus changing the reaction to subsequent stimuli. All I can come up with is that anchoring is generally used in a more narrow context while priming seems more like an umbrella term. That, or they could just be field specific terms for the same underlying cognitive processes. **Is there some consensus as to how anchoring and priming are related?**

One relevant [paper I've found](http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/hypothesis-consistent_testing_and_semantic_priming_in_the_anchoring_paradigm-_a_selective_accessibility_model.pdf) suggests that priming (along with hypothesis testing) constitute the underlying mechanisms that operate within the anchoring *paradigm*. However, this is just one (rather old) paper, so I think question as to the consensus viewpoint is still valid.

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, terminology, anchoring, behavioral-economics


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