It was a client dinner, eight of us, at a steakhouse that understood exactly what it was doing.
The menu opened with a dry-aged ribeye at $145. No one at the table ordered it. But that item did its job anyway, because once you had seen $145, the $85 filet suddenly felt reasonable. The $55 wine became a sensible choice. The $38 appetizer seemed almost modest.
None of us ordered the ribeye. All of us made decisions the menu had been designed to produce.
That is anchoring. And it is one of the Old Brain's most reliable mechanisms.
Why the First Number Is Never Just Information
The Old Brain does not evaluate numbers in isolation. It cannot.
To assign meaning to any figure, it needs a reference point. The first number it encounters becomes that reference point, and it functions as an anchor, a fixed point from which everything else is measured. What comes after gets evaluated not on its absolute merits but in relation to what came first.
This is not a conscious process. It happens before deliberation starts. By the time your New Brain is analyzing the second or third option, the anchor is already doing its work. Comparisons run against it. Judgments are formed in relation to it. The first number does not just set a context. It shapes the entire decision environment.
Researchers have demonstrated this with striking consistency. Ask people to write down the last two digits of their social security number, then bid on an item at auction. People with higher Social Security digits consistently bid more. The numbers are completely unrelated to the auction. The Old Brain uses them anyway.
Where Anchoring Runs Your Decisions
Salary negotiations. The first number spoken in the room defines the range in which the negotiation happens. Research consistently shows that whoever makes the first offer, even an aggressive one, gets a better outcome. The counter-offer will be calculated in relation to the anchor, not to the objective value of the role.
Real estate listings. The listing price is an anchor. If a property is priced high and stays on the market, buyers do not re-evaluate it from scratch after a price reduction. They think about the reduction from the anchor. A property that came down from $1.2 million to $1.05 million feels different from a property that was always priced at $1.05 million, even if the market value is identical.
Software pricing tiers. The premium tier exists partly to make the mid-tier feel reasonable. Without the enterprise option at $500 per month, the professional option at $200 per month looks expensive. With it, the professional option looks like a disciplined, considered choice.
Consulting and agency proposals. A three-option proposal, where the middle option is the one you actually want the client to choose, outperforms a single-option proposal. The client compares rather than evaluates in isolation. The anchor effect shifts the perception of what "reasonable" looks like.
This Works Even When You Know It Is Happening
This is the important piece. Awareness of anchoring does not make you immune to it.
Studies have shown this directly. When participants are explicitly told that a random number was generated by a wheel of fortune and has no relevance to the task, they still anchor to it. The New Brain understands that the anchor is arbitrary. The Old Brain has already done its work.
Knowing the mechanism exists, and knowing it is affecting you, gives you a modest advantage in deliberate decision-making. But the anchor effect happens before deliberation. By the time your New Brain is considering whether to adjust, the adjustment still starts from the anchor. And research shows that people consistently adjust less than they should.
How to Use This Ethically and Effectively
In your pricing, lead with your most comprehensive offer, not as bait but because it establishes the reference frame within which your other options are evaluated.
In your negotiations, make the first move when you can. The anchor advantage is real. An opening that reflects genuine value, not a manufactured extreme, will still shape the range more than no anchor does.
In your proposals, structure comparisons deliberately. What option do you want the client to choose? Build the context around it. The reference points on either side are not decoration. They are the decision environment.
And when you are the buyer: before you engage with any price, take a moment to establish your own value anchor independently. What is this actually worth to you? What would you have decided it was worth if you had set the first number? Then enter the comparison with that reference active. You will not eliminate the anchoring effect, but you will reduce the degree to which the first number someone else chose determines your outcome.
The first number always wins. The question is whether you set it, or someone else does.
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Paul Larche is the author of The Divided Brain (BookLife Prize 10/10, Editor’s Pick) and a behavioural branding strategist.