Anchoring effect in visual information processing during financial decisions: An eye-tracking study.

Abstract

When reading a fi nancial disclosure document, subjects are faced with multiple information cues and might simplify decisional complexity by relying on heuristics. This study explores whether, in an attempt to fi lter information from the Payment Account Fees Information Document (FID), subjects anchor their evaluation to a speci fi c item, leading to biased fi nancial choices. By detecting the visual search strategy in 70 subjects through eye tracking, we observed that people exhibited systematic visual anchoring to the top of the document, which corresponds to the Liquidity section that displays the Annual Fee. Moreover, data revealed that subjects sometimes fail to recognize the most advantageous products. This mainly occurs when the Annual Fee is high, even if the other charges compensate for that amount, clarifying the link between visual search strategy and fi nancial decisions. Data also showed the role of fi nancial literacy in modulating attention, as poorly fi nancially literate subjects are more prone to anchoring bias. The fi ndings contribute to the neuroeconomics literature on anchoring effect and highlight practical implications for fi nancial regulators and managers involved in the ergonomics of documents.