Money & Shopping · 2 minute read
Why the First Price You See Changes What You Will Pay
A first price can quietly become a reference point, so a later price feels cheap or expensive in comparison instead of on its own.
A normal situation
You see a jacket for €300. A few minutes later it is marked down to €180. The second price suddenly feels attractive, even if you had never planned to spend €180 on a jacket.
What is happening?
The first number gives your mind a starting point. When the next number arrives, you may judge it relative to that starting point instead of asking what the item is worth to you.
Anchors appear in discounts, salary talks, house prices and negotiations. They are especially easy to miss because the first number can shape the whole conversation before you have made your own estimate.
The useful lens
Anchoring Effect
This does not prove that one bias caused the decision. It is a useful lens for asking a better question and checking the evidence.
Evidence note: Anchoring is a well-supported effect in which an initial numerical value can pull a later estimate toward it. A 2026 meta-analysis covering 2,601 effect sizes found a large overall effect, but also substantial variation across studies. The effect should not be treated as a rule that every number changes every judgment: incidental anchors, anchors from a different dimension, clearly random values, incentives, and some debiasing conditions were associated with smaller or null effects.