Accidental Influence

Accidental Influence is all around us.

Described as “The Anchoring Trap” in a HBR post:

How would you answer these two questions?

Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million?

What’s your best estimate of Turkey’s population?

If you’re like most people, the figure of 35 million cited in the first question (a figure we chose arbitrarily) influenced your answer to the second question. Over the years, we’ve posed those questions to many groups of people. In half the cases, we used 35 million in the first question; in the other half, we used 100 million. Without fail, the answers to the second question increase by many millions when the larger figure is used in the first question. 

We can, of course, be influenced without realising it.

We can use this to our advantage too, though, by guiding our vision with way we self-talk, the way we nurture our teams, and the expectations we put on ourselves.

How have you been “accidentally influenced” this week?

How could you use this to your advantage?