Anchoring Heuristic and the Estimation of Accounting and Financial Indicators

The literature is unclear about how the perceptions that are involved with accounting judgment occur. The fundamental purpose of this article is to identify the effects of anchoring in the estimation of a balance sheet indicator to represent companies’ net profit. From this perspective, the dynamics of the decision-making process prompt the use of true or false reference points, suggestively called anchors. This study examines how an arbitrary number presented to someone may influence their judgment, regarding a company’s net profit, and the results provide evidence of the existence of anchoring bias in the estimation of this indicator. It’s believed that studies of this nature are fundamental to provide a greater understanding of how heuristics may influence individual judgment and, consequently, how such biases may be avoided.