In one line: The first number we see drags our judgement towards it — even when it's irrelevant.
Anchoring bias is a cognitive-approach term. Once an anchor is set, we adjust away from it — but usually not far enough. It is a clear case of the concept of bias.
A £200 jumper marked down to £80 feels cheap; the same jumper first seen at £80 feels ordinary. The starting figure — the anchor — shifts what seems reasonable, without us noticing.
Memory hook: First number sticks. We anchor to it and don't drift far enough away.
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Key idea: An anchor is a starting point; we adjust from it, but the adjustment is usually too small, so the anchor still shapes the final judgement.
Anchoring step by step
Meet the anchor
A first value lands — a price, an estimate, a number even randomly given.
Adjust from it
We move our estimate up or down from the anchor, treating it as a starting reference.
Stop too soon
The adjustment is too small, so the final answer stays pulled towards the anchor.
Anchor · Adjust too little · Biased answer
Take negotiating a used car. If the seller opens at £9,000, the buyer's counter-offer and final price sit higher than if the seller had opened at £6,000 — even for the same car. The opening figure anchored the whole negotiation. This is the concept of bias at work.
Go further — higher-level insight: Anchors work even when they're obviously random. Studies show people's estimates shift towards a number they know was produced by a spin of a wheel. That is what makes anchoring such striking evidence that judgement is not purely rational.
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Key idea: Anchoring is robust and practically important, but its size depends on context and expertise.
| Strengths and limitations | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence | Replicated in many experiments, even with random anchors | Effect size varies; experts are sometimes less affected |
| Use | Explains pricing, negotiation, estimates, first offers | Describes the effect more than the exact mechanism |
| Reach | Applies to shopping, courts, medicine, salaries | Hard to fully remove, even when people are warned |
So anchoring is a strong, well-replicated bias with clear real-world uses (and misuses, like inflated 'original' prices), but a good evaluation notes it varies in strength and is more a reliable pattern than a complete theory of why.
Watch out: Awareness isn't enough. Simply knowing about anchoring doesn't remove it. The better defence is generating your own estimate first, before you see anyone else's number.