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Making decisions
Making decisions

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4.5.2 Anchoring adjustment

Many decisions need revisiting and updating as new information comes available. However, most of us make insufficient anchoring adjustment: this is the tendency to fail to update one's targets as the environment changes (Rutledge, 1993). Once a manager has made an initial decision or judgement then this provides a mental anchor which acts as a source of resistance to reaching a significantly different conclusion as new information becomes available. It is what happens when one has made a snap judgement and then disregards feedback that is inconsistent with this position. This bias can affect judgements about people as well as technical judgements. Making early judgements about someone, for example in a job interview, may put you in an anchored position, and later information may come too late to shift your opinion (Anderson, 1992).