Anchoring bias is one of those psychological constructs that is very familiar to psychologists but less widely talked about by the rest of humanity.  And yet, it is extremely important for framing arguments in public speaking and other forms of communication.  One might say, especially important in public speaking, because our powers of skeptical analysis are –on the whole – so weak for what we hear in these settings.  We are rapidly overloaded with information, and so tend to hang on to the first bit of data we hear in order to help us sort through the clutter and subsequently make a decision.

What is anchoring bias?  It is the human tendency to use that first number or concept that we hear as a yardstick for everything that follows.  So, for example, if you find yourself at the dentist, and that worthy individual is quoting you a price for some work that needs to be done, what you think of as a fair price will be heavily influenced by whatever number you hear first.  Even if it is ridiculous.  For example, if your dentist has a sense of humor and responds to your query about the cost of a new crown with an hilarious, off-hand “A million dollars!” – you will nonetheless be pleasantly surprised by the next number you hear, even if it’s, say, a couple thousand.  Your unconscious anchor was set at a million, so a thousand or two seems like pocket change.

A classic sales technique is to try to get you, the buyer, to name a price first, in order to play off your inexperience and basic decency.  But that misses an opportunity to anchor the discussion on a much higher scale.  Let’s say, for example, that you’re in the proverbial car showroom looking at a new Honda.  The salesmen should casually start the conversation on the subject of that cool Lamborghini that she saw over the weekend.  “Those beauties go for $250,000!”  That’s an anchoring comment that will make the $25K you might pay for the Honda seem modest – and perhaps cause you to add in one of those nice, heated-seats-and-winterizing packages as an extra you would otherwise have passed up.

OK, besides sales, what are the implications for public speaking?  You can use anchoring techniques throughout your presentations to make your statements seem more or less bold, and your ‘asks’ seem more or less magnificent.  There may be times when you want to minimize a situation or condition, and times when you want to amplify the same.  Anchoring helps do either one in the minds of your audience.

The situation is analogous to what happens to prospective new home buyers.  We are particularly susceptible to spending thousands of dollars on upgrades on the bathroom fixtures, for example, when we are signing up for hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage money.  That might seem like a time to minimize what is after all an enormous debt, but our minds don’t work that way.  Most of us are unused to thinking about such large sums of money, and the $1500 upgrade for those gold-plated tub handles seems like nothing in comparison to the overall amounts.

We humans are not particularly adept at handling many large numbers under most circumstances, and we are easily addled when it comes to these abstractions. Early humans apparently had numbering systems that labeled 1, 2, 3, and then basically infinity, or a Really Large Number for anything over 3.

If you work daily with numbers and have to speak about them, remember that your audiences are most likely not as adept as you are.  Have mercy on our feeble brains and keep the accounting as simple as possible.  And use your anchoring skills to keep us thinking realistically about the numbers in our lives – especially if they’re over 3 in value.

This bias in our thinking applies more generally to emotions and states of mind.  When we’re feeling full after a large meal, for example, it’s difficult to image ever being hungry again.  We humans are focused on the here and now most powerfully, and other conditions and potential future states take a back seat when it comes to our attention.

Use anchoring logic consciously and it can help you.  You want to avoid disappointment by unintentionally setting up resistance to your ideas with unconscious anchoring in the wrong direction.  Instead, use it consciously to get your audience’s buy in to your proposals and ideas.