Anchoring Definition

Anchoring is a cognitive bias that describes the human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the ‘anchor’) when making decisions.

This tendency occurs because our brains are wired to seek patterns and to fill in gaps in our knowledge with whatever information is available. When we encounter a new problem, we immediately look for clues that will help us solve it. The first clue we find often becomes an anchor that biases our subsequent judgments.

For example, imagine you are asked to guess the weight of a bull. After hearing the weight of the bull, you are then asked to guess the weight of a cow. Most people would guess that the cow weighs less than the bull, even though they have no idea how much either one weighs. The anchoring effect is at work here: the initial estimate (of the bull’s weight) serves as an anchor that biases our subsequent estimates (of the cow’s weight).

The anchoring effect can lead to bad decision-making if we rely too heavily on the first piece of information we receive and fail to consider other relevant information. It is important to be aware of this bias so that we can adjust for it when necessary.