Have you ever found yourself giving an answer or making a choice and wondering later if your decision was really your own? Chances are, you’ve been nudged in a certain direction without even knowing it. This silent influence often comes from something called the anchoring bias. From car prices to medical decisions and even tiny everyday choices, this bias can shape what we think is reasonable—or even true.
Let’s look into how the anchoring bias works, why it grabs us so easily, and how one professor’s clever question stumped some of the brightest students in the room. Video summary generated with artificial intelligence.
Understanding Anchoring: The Car Price Question
Imagine you’re in an MBA classroom at Columbia University with Professor Michael Morris. He starts with a simple question: “Do you think the average German car costs more than $90,000?” At first glance, this seems like a straightforward ask. But there’s more going on.
This question is a setup to introduce anchoring—a mental shortcut where your brain grabs onto the first piece of information it gets, the “anchor,” and lets that number pull all your later thinking toward it. The anchor could be a price, a number, or even a random fact. Even if you know the anchor might make no sense, your mind gravitates to it just the same.
Anchoring isn’t just a neat party trick—it shapes big decisions:
- Negotiations: The first offer sets the bar, often pulling everyone toward it, even if it’s way off.
- Medicine: Doctors can be swayed by the first piece of information about a patient, which can cloud their judgment and lead to mistakes.
- Everyday life: Whether you’re guessing the time, picking a price, or estimating how many candies are in a jar, you’re more likely to land closer to whatever anchor was set.
This bias shows up everywhere:
- Buying or selling anything
- Job interviews and salary talks
- Diagnoses and treatment options
- Guessing, estimating, and making snap calls
It’s almost automatic. Whether you want to or not, your thoughts drift near the anchor.
Tversky and Kahneman’s Foundational Anchoring Experiment
The story of anchoring begins with psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. In 1971, they set up a clever experiment to see whether a random number could change what people thought.
Participants first spun a rigged wheel with numbers from 1 to 100. The wheel always landed either on a high or low number, depending on the setup. Right after the spin, the researchers asked a very different question: How many African countries are members of the United Nations?
Participants who spun a high number thought the answer was much higher than those who spun a low number. Their guesses weren’t rooted in facts—they were tugged towards the wheel’s number, the anchor.
This was a big deal. It was the first hard proof that anchoring can steer even the smartest minds without them noticing. No matter how random the anchor was, people’s estimates clung to it.
Imagine a simple chart: The higher the anchor, the higher the estimate. The lower the anchor, the lower the estimate. This visual makes the invisible influence of anchors easy to spot.
Professor Morris’ MBA Student Experiment: High Achievers, Same Trap
Think that only the average person falls into this trap? Professor Michael Morris proved otherwise by turning the anchoring test toward his own MBA students.
He split his classroom in half. Group one heard: “Do you think the average German car from last year costs more than $90,000?” Group two got: “Do you think it costs more than $30,000?”
Right after, both groups had to estimate the average price themselves.
- $90,000 anchor: Students guessed the average price was between $45,000 and $50,000.
- $30,000 anchor: Students said $35,000 to $40,000.
That’s a huge difference, all created by the anchor. These weren’t rookie students—they were some of the brightest future business leaders. Yet no matter how much they relied on logic or reason, their answers gravitated toward the anchor they’d heard first.
There’s another twist. When asked how they reached their number, each group insisted they used “rational” thinking. Only when Professor Morris dug deeper did students from the high-anchor group mention luxury brands, like Mercedes, while those from the low-anchor group pictured more budget-friendly cars, like Volkswagen. The anchor had reached straight into their mental images.
Professor Morris summed it up:
“Intuition drives more than 90% of our thinking and behavior.”
The experiment revealed more than just a number trick. It exposed how mental images, nudged by the anchor, can shape reasoning—even when we’re sure we’re thinking for ourselves.
Comparing Group Thinking
- $90,000 Anchor Group
- Thought of luxury cars and brands
- Anchored higher in their guesses
- $30,000 Anchor Group
- Focused on affordable brands
- Anchored lower
No matter how much knowledge or logic people use, anchors have a hidden grip. Our minds fill the gaps with images, prices, or ideas that fit the first information we got—even if we know it’s not a fair start.
Why Anchoring Captures Even Experts
Anchoring bias doesn’t care about experience or education. It can influence everyone, from top students to seasoned pros.
Negotiators see the effect all the time. The first number on the table, even if outrageous, can shape where discussions end. A seller who starts high can pull in higher bids, while a buyer who opens low may push the outcome downward.
Doctors and medical staff are at risk, too. The first symptom or early clue can set off a chain of thinking that’s hard to break, leading to screening errors or wrong diagnoses.
So why is it so tough to dodge the anchor? It comes down to intuition. Our snap judgments, the gut feelings we rely on every day, follow the first information they grab onto.
First impressions stick. Whether it’s a number, idea, or a person’s introduction, what comes first lingers in the back of our minds and shapes what comes next.
Here’s how anchoring shapes thinking in three steps:
- You see or hear the anchor (number, fact, or idea).
- Your intuition drifts toward it, building a mental picture around it.
- Your final answer, guess, or decision sits near the anchor—even if you try to adjust away.
Anchoring bias is everywhere: at the car dealership, in business talks, and during quick-fire decisions in daily life. The first thing you see or hear can stick with you, whether you want it to or not. It’s part of how we’re wired.
But knowing anchoring exists makes a big difference. By spotting the anchors around you—and inside you—you can make choices that actually reflect what you want or believe, not just what you heard first.
Stay curious about the patterns in your own thinking. Keep questioning, keep learning, and don’t let the anchor do all the steering.
