A [[Cognitive Bias]] that occurs when people place too much importance on the first piece of information gathered. Anchoring is talked about a lot in sales negotiation strategies. It's the concept that if you say a number first, then every subsequent number will be relative to the first, creating an advantage for the first person to speak. In the case of [[Meritocracy]] and other patterns regarding internal communication of a business, the anchoring bias is an antipattern. #### Example Consider a scenario in which the leader of a meeting asks the group, "What do you think is the number one issue we should focus on right now?". There are two basic, sub-optimal outcomes and the meeting has barely started. 1. The Type As of the group take over the meeting by speaking quickly and oftentimes more loudly than others and their opinions become the focus of attention. Other issues will not have the chance to become the most important. 2. Each person will take their turn to explain what they think the number one issue is before the discussion begins. Each subsequent person to answer is influenced by the previous answers. #### Further Reading [Thinking, Fast and Slow](https://amzn.to/2O6mjHh) #books