Anchoring is the cognitive bias that causes people to rely too heavily on the first piece of information they receive. In negotiation, the first number stated — the anchor — shapes everything that follows.
The research on this is unambiguous. Even arbitrary anchors — numbers with no logical connection to the negotiation — influence final outcomes. When the anchor is set by one party, the other party's counteroffer, concessions and final position all cluster around it.
This has two practical implications.
First: go first. The negotiator who sets the anchor controls the frame. If you wait for the other side to open, you are negotiating on their terms before the conversation has properly begun.
Second: when you receive an anchor, do not treat it as a starting point. Treat it as a signal. An extreme anchor tells you something about the other side's position, their confidence, and their strategy. Acknowledge it, but do not anchor yourself to it in response.
The most effective counter to an aggressive anchor is not an equally aggressive counter-anchor. It is to explicitly reject the frame — to name what is happening — and to reset the conversation around objective criteria, market data, or the underlying interests at stake.
Anchoring is one of the most studied phenomena in negotiation research. Understanding it does not make you immune to it. But it does make you harder to manipulate.