Anchoring bias is a cognitive bias that causes us to rely too heavily on the first piece of information we are given about a topic.

The anchoring bias is the result of our innate human desire to arrive at a conclusion as quickly as possible. This bias may occur when a decision maker relies too heavily on the first piece of information they encounter (the “anchor”).

In decision-making, people tend to place too much importance on the first information they receive, regardless of its value. The anchoring bias has been shown to affect judgments in a wide variety of domains, including financial decisions, medical diagnoses, and even simple estimations of quantity.

People are introduced to comparatively “high” prices when entering the store to make it seem like they got a good deal.