Coaching practices for How to Avoid Anchoring Bias

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I keep telling myself I’m too informed to be swayed by their asking price, yet when I try to judge what this is really worth my estimate keeps quietly drifting back toward that first number
• They opened with a wildly lopsided number and even though I know it’s a tactic, I caught myself instantly doing the math up from their figure
• I’m walking into a negotiation about money and I’ve noticed whoever names a figure first quietly sets the whole tone
• I build my estimate from my own optimistic story first and only glance at how long these things usually take at the very end as a sanity check
• I’m about to lock in a judgment and I’m only seeing the evidence that backs it

Practices that may help

1. Anchoring Bias in Negotiation and Judgment
   Anchoring is the tendency for an initial number to pull subsequent estimates and offers toward it, even when that number is arbitrary or irrelevant. It’s one of the most reliably replicated effects in judgment research, which is why the first offer in a negotiation matters far more than people expect.
2. Name the anchor to blunt it
   Saying "that’s an anchor" out loud reduces — but doesn’t erase — its grip.
   Anchoring Bias in Negotiation and Judgment
3. Counter-anchor before you respond
   When they open extreme, don’t negotiate from their number — reset with your own.
   Anchoring Bias in Negotiation and Judgment
4. Set a deliberate anchor before the target number
   Present a higher figure first so that your actual offer or ask appears more reasonable by contrast.
   The Contrast Principle, Made Practical
5. Anchor on the base rate before adding inside-view details
   Start your forecast from the class median, then adjust — do not start from your narrative and adjust to the base rate.
   Reference Class Forecasting
6. Consider the opposite before finalizing a judgment
   Deliberately generate the case for the conclusion you are not reaching.
   Motivated Reasoning
7. Recognize when contrast is being used on you
   Awareness of the contrast principle is the antidote — evaluate options against an independent standard, not the presented sequence.
   The Contrast Principle, Made Practical
8. Set an ambitious, defensible anchor
   Aim high enough to move the range, but keep a rationale so it isn’t dismissed.
   Anchoring Bias in Negotiation and Judgment
9. Anchor feedback to a specific situation
   Name the exact time and place before you say anything else.
   The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical
10. Make the first offer (when you’re informed)
    When you know the value range, anchor first — the opening number drags the deal toward it.
    Anchoring Bias in Negotiation and Judgment

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