Anchoring Bias: Why the First Number Changes the Decision
Why an initial number can pull later estimates toward itself, what a new 2026 meta-analysis says about the size of the effect, and why not every random number becomes an anchor.
COLLECTION
Cognition & Perception
Cognitive Biases & Decision Errors
Explore anchoring, availability, hindsight, and motivated reasoning as recurring patterns in judgment and decision-making.
4 Articles
3 Explained · 1 Deep Dive
Articles in this Collection
Availability Heuristic: Why Vivid Examples Feel More Common
Why ease of recall can stand in for actual frequency, when that shortcut works surprisingly well, and why the familiar “dramatic media risk” story is weaker than many textbooks imply.
Hindsight Bias: Why the Past Looks More Predictable After the Fact
Why known outcomes reshape memory, probability and causal stories, and why “I knew it all along” can make learning from the past worse instead of better.
Motivated Reasoning: When Conclusions Shape the Evidence We Accept
How desired conclusions can influence search, scrutiny and interpretation, why this differs from ordinary confirmation bias, and why current research warns against calling every belief-consistent judgment irrational.