Cognitive biases #3: Anchors

We humans are a stubborn lot

Mark Shrime, MD, PhD

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Question for you: which country is bigger—Georgia or Jordan?

As always, don’t look it up!

If, like me, you’re a daily Worldle player, you know that the absolute worst part of the game is when they make you guess how big a country is.

Worldle, 28 August 2024

So you might hate how this post starts. But stick with me. It’s not all about country surface areas!

That said, before you decide which country is bigger, let me tell you about the two.

Georgia is a deeply fascinating place. Stuck in the middle of Russia and Turkey, it’s the birthplace of wine. Some of the churches there date back to the 9th century.

Here’s Tbilisi, its capital, during a gorgeous October sunset in 2023:

Tbilisi, Georgia, at sunset

While I can’t tell you Georgia’s size (that would be cheating!), here are its neighbors with their surface areas:

  • Russia to the northeast, is the largest country in the world, at 17,100,000 sq km
  • Turkey to the south (783,000 sq km)
  • Azerbaijan to the southeast (86,000 sq km), and

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Mark Shrime, MD, PhD

Author, SOLVING FOR WHY | Global surgeon | Decision analyst | Climber | 3x American Ninja Warrior Competitor