Jonathan Cutrell

Anchoring

An effect where the initial frame of reference has a major effect on later perspectives.

This is surprisingly often inescapable, even if the anchor is well-known to be a facade.

For example, a car lot using artificially high prices is not as silly of a tactic as it may immediately seem. Despite the cognitive understanding that the prices are indeed artificial, humans still have a hard time discarding the "anchor" price.