Cognitive Bias Cards · Card 2

Anchoring

The first number you see quietly becomes the number everything else gets judged against — even when it has nothing to do with actual value.

In Practice

A stock that once traded at ₹500 and now sits at ₹300 feels "cheap" — even if ₹300 is still more than it's actually worth.

Generic Example

A jacket marked down from ₹5,000 to ₹2,500 feels like a bargain, even if ₹2,500 was always its real value.

Am I judging this against its actual worth, or against a number I happened to see first?

Shows up in Biases