The science behind our bargain hunting foolishness

When we walk into a store and see an Ultra HD Television costing upwards of $40,000, we usually feel as if it’s a complete waste of money and start to look at the other bargain options in the $1500 range. While we may think we are smart shoppers, we have been manipulated.

Anchoring is a cognitive bias where the initial figure that is provided to our minds distorts our thinking and influences our subsequent buying decision. The $1500 TV wouldn’t look so enticing and cheap if we didn’t see the expensive one before. In fact, if the first TV we saw was for $500, then the $1500 TV would look expensive.

Many psychological findings are hard to replicate, but anchoring is easy to demonstrate and repeat.

Court judgements are routinely influenced by anchors, where initial numbers play a subconscious role in the judge’s mind. Salary negotiations are affected by the starting position, so it is always important to make the initial offer.