Steve: Anchoring Bias

By: steve-wang

Anchoring bias is when someone is influenced by the first information they get too much. People are affected by this bias because people try to make their decisions based on the information they have received before. An example of an Anchoring bias is when I go buy food, the first thing I see is very expensive and the second thing I see is cheaper. This will cause me to believe the second item is very cheap and cause me to buy the second item. Anchoring bias that is often used in daily life is, when we go shopping, if the first thing we see is something very high quality, that will set a high standard for us which might cause us to only look for other similar high quality products for the rest of the trip. We have set our anchor on the high quality product and will judge other products to that similar standard. We can use this to manipulate others to do what we want. To use it to influence others, you need multiple options and make it so the other options make the option you want them to pick better and more appealing. This way others will think that other options are bad and the option you want them to pick will seem better. You might also want to make sure the item that you want other things to be compared to should come first. People remember the first thing more.