Research Design Connections: Sensory Experience Sequences
Researchers have found that initial sensory experiences color responses to future ones. Jain, Nayakankuppam, and Gaeth, in a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, report that “Once a price is mentioned, that number serves as the basis for — or ‘anchors’ — all future discussions and decisions. But new research shows. . . anchoring even occurs in perceptual domains, like sight, sound, and touch. . . . [the researchers] conducted several studies involving different senses. For example, to test decision-making relating to haptics — or touch — [they] asked subjects to close their eyes and touch sandpaper of a certain grit. When the subjects opened their eyes, he offered them 16 sandpaper choices and asked them to find the grit that matched the first one. Jain anchored the range of options by making participants start with either a relatively finer or coarser grit than the initial one. …
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