Lewinson Rebecca Elizabeth, Katz Joel D
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
JMIR Hum Factors. 2020 Mar 9;7(1):e17533. doi: 10.2196/17533.
Numerical anchoring occurs when exposure to a numeric quantity influences a person's subsequent judgment involving other quantities. This could be applicable to the evaluation of pain, where exposure to an unrelated number before the evaluation of pain could influence pain ratings.
This study aimed to determine whether exposure to a random numeric anchor influences subsequent pain intensity ratings of a hypothetical patient.
In this study, 385 participants read a vignette describing a patient with chronic pain before being randomly assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 spun an 11-wedge number wheel (0-10), which was, unbeknown to the participants, programmed to stop on a high number (8) or a low number (2), respectively. Group 3 spun a similar letter wheel (A-K), which was programmed to stop on either the letter C or I (control 1). Group 4 did not spin a wheel (control 2). Participants were then asked to rate the patient's pain intensity using a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale.
The high-number group rated the patient's pain (median 8, IQR 2) significantly higher than the letter wheel control (median 7, IQR 2; P=.02) and the low-number group (median 6, IQR 2; P<.001). The low-number group rated the pain significantly lower than controls 1 and 2 (median 7, IQR 2; both P=.045).
Pain ratings were influenced by prior exposure to a random number with no relevant information about the patient's pain, indicating anchoring had occurred. However, contrary to the traditional definition of anchoring where anchoring occurs even when participants are unaware of the anchor's influence, in this study, the anchoring effect was seen only in participants who believed that the anchor had influenced them. This suggests that anchoring effects could potentially occur among health care providers tasked with evaluating a patient's pain and should be evaluated further.
当接触到一个数值量影响到一个人随后对其他量的判断时，就会发生数字锚定。这可能适用于疼痛评估，即在评估疼痛之前接触到一个不相关的数字可能会影响疼痛评分。
本研究旨在确定接触随机数字锚是否会影响对一名假设患者的后续疼痛强度评分。
在本研究中，385名参与者在阅读了一篇描述慢性疼痛患者的短文后，被随机分配到四组中的一组。第1组和第2组转动一个有11个楔形的数字轮（0至10），参与者不知道的是，该数字轮被设定分别停在一个高数字（8）或一个低数字（2）上。第3组转动一个类似的字母轮（A至K），该字母轮被设定停在字母C或I上（对照组1）。第4组不转动轮子（对照组2）。然后要求参与者使用0至10的数字评分量表对患者的疼痛强度进行评分。
高数字组对患者疼痛的评分（中位数8，四分位距2）显著高于字母轮对照组（中位数7，四分位距2；P=0.02）和低数字组（中位数6，四分位距2；P<0.001）。低数字组对疼痛的评分显著低于对照组1和对照组2（中位数7，四分位距2；P均=0.045）。
疼痛评分受到之前接触到的与患者疼痛无关的随机数字的影响，表明发生了锚定效应。然而，与锚定的传统定义相反，即即使参与者没有意识到锚的影响也会发生锚定，在本研究中，锚定效应仅在那些认为锚对其有影响的参与者中出现。这表明，在负责评估患者疼痛的医疗保健人员中可能会发生锚定效应，应进一步进行评估。
