Close
When someonemakes a decision, they tend to rely heavily on the first piece of info they receive about the issue at hand.In psychology, this type ofcognitive biasis known as the anchoring bias or anchoring effect, which often sways decisions and occurs regardless of gender and other external factors.
Even arbitrary numbers can lead participants to make incorrect estimates.In one example, participants spun a wheel to select a number between 0 and 100. The volunteers were then asked to adjust that number up or down to indicate how many African countries are in the U.N. Those who spun a high number gave higher estimates than those who spun a low number. In each case, the participant used that initial number as the anchor point for their decision.
Anchoring Bias Can Influence How Much You’re Willing to Pay
Imagine you’re buying a new car. You read online that its average price is $27,000. At the local car lot, the dealer offers you the same vehicle for $26,500, which you quickly accept, After all, you might reason, it’s $500 less than what you were expecting to pay—but the dealer across town is offering the same vehicle for just $24,000, a full $2,500 less than what you paid and $3,000 less than the average price you found online.
If you buy the more expensive car, you might berate yourself for making such a quick decision without shopping around. So why might you jump so quickly on that first offer? Because your initial research indicated that $27,000 was the average price—your anchor point. Despite further information, such as the possibility that other dealers might have lower prices, you based your decision on that anchor. Any price lower than that probably would have been appealing.
The anchoring bias suggests that we favor the first bit of information we learn.
Pixabay
Anchoring Bias Can Influence How Much You Make
Imagine that you’re negotiating a pay raise with your boss. You might hesitate to make an initial offer, but anchoring-bias research suggests that the first person to lay their cards on the table might have the advantage. So you name a number, which then becomes the anchor—the starting point for all further negotiations. This puts negotiations in your favor because your first offer established a range of acceptable counteroffers. Any future offers will use that initial number as an anchor or focal point.
Even irrelevant or incorrect details can serve as anchors. This makes media literacy—the ability to evaluate what you see and read accurately—crucial in contemporary life.
Anchoring Bias Affects Much More Than Your Finances
The anchoring effect has an impact on many areas beyond financial and purchasing decisions.Take these examples:
How the Primary Effect Works
Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images
Awareness Is Key
The next time you’remaking an important decision, consider the possible impact of the anchoring bias on your choices. Are you giving enough weight to all of the available information and possible options, or are you basing your decision on an existing anchor point?
10 Cognitive Biases That Impact Thinking
6 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Teovanović P.Individual Differences in Anchoring Effect: Evidence for the Role of Insufficient Adjustment.Eur J Psychol.2019;15(1):8-24. doi:10.5964/ejop.v15i1.1691
Lee KK.An indirect debiasing method: Priming a target attribute reduces judgmental biases in likelihood estimations.PLoS ONE. 2019;14(3):e0212609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212609
Mor S.Inducing gender/professional identity compatibility promotes women’s compensation requests.PLoS ONE.2018;13(11):e0207035. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0207035
Media Literacy: A Definition and More. Center for Media Literacy.
Saposnik G, Redelmeier D, Ruff CC, Tobler PN.Cognitive biases associated with medical decisions: a systematic review.BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2016;16(1):138. doi:10.1186/s12911-016-0377-1
Thorsteinson TJ. Initiating Salary Discussions With an Extreme Request: Anchoring Effects on Initial Salary Offers.Journal of Applied Social Psychology.2011;41(7):1774-1792. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00779.x.Tversky A, Kahneman D. Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.Science.1974;185(4157):1124-1131. doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
Thorsteinson TJ. Initiating Salary Discussions With an Extreme Request: Anchoring Effects on Initial Salary Offers.Journal of Applied Social Psychology.2011;41(7):1774-1792. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00779.x.
Tversky A, Kahneman D. Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.Science.1974;185(4157):1124-1131. doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
Meet Our Review Board
Share Feedback
Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit
Was this page helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit
What is your feedback?
