Anchoring is the cognitive bias where the first number mentioned in a negotiation disproportionately influences all subsequent judgments about value, price, or terms. When someone throws out an initial figure, that number becomes the reference point around which the entire negotiation orbits, regardless of whether it has any rational basis. This is not because people are stupid or irrational, but because of how human cognition processes numerical information under uncertainty. The anchor creates a mental framework that shapes perception of what is reasonable, acceptable, or extreme, often without conscious awareness. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s research on anchoring showed that...