Anchoring Bias: Using Comparison to Drive Sales
You sit down at a restaurant and see a $150 Wagyu steak. You’d never order it. But because it’s there, the $45 Filet Mignon suddenly looks reasonable. You order the Filet, not because it’s cheap, but because the Wagyu made it feel like a safe investment. You didn’t buy it to save money; you bought it because the anchor changed your perception of value. That is “Anchoring Bias”. What is Anchoring Bias? In essence, Anchoring Bias is our tendency to rely too heavily on the first number we see when making a decision. The first piece of information acts as the “Anchor”, significantly impacting how we will perceive the following pieces of information. If you read our previous article “The Paradox of Choice”, the concept of Anchoring Bias may feel similar to the Tiered Pricing Model; but they exist in two completely different worlds. While the Tiered Pricing Model