An anchor is the first concrete number that lands in a negotiation. Once it lands, every counter is unconsciously evaluated relative to it — even by the side that knows the anchor is arbitrary. Anchoring is the most replicated effect in negotiation research; the only real question is when to move first and how to defuse the other side’s anchor if they get there first.

When to use Anchoring

Use anchoring at any first-offer moment where the information is on your side. If the information is on their side (e.g. they have data on internal pay bands you do not), let them anchor and defuse.

Salary negotiations after a job offer
Vendor pricing in B2B sales
Scope or timeline negotiations on a new project
Equity, severance, or compensation-package conversations
Any moment where the counterpart asks “what are you looking for”

How to use it

Move first when the information is on your side. If you have done comparable research and the counterpart has not, anchoring first locks the range.
Use a precise number, not a round one. $182,500 outperforms $180,000; precision implies research and shifts the counter toward smaller increments.
Anchor with a range that bolsters upward, not a midpoint. “$182,500 to $198,000” anchors the discussion at the high end of your acceptable range, not the middle.
Defuse their anchor before countering. If they anchor first, name the anchor as theirs (“that’s a lower number than I was working with, given the comparable offers”) before you put yours on the table.
Justify the anchor with one externally-verifiable signal — comparable offers, market data, a specific past project — so the counter cannot dismiss it as wishful.

Example

Them

What are you looking for in terms of compensation?

On your HUD

$182,500 to $198,000 base is where I’d expect this role to land, given scope and comparable senior offers I’ve seen.
What range were you working with?

What Kennan would surface in this moment, in the same first-person bullet format as the in-app HUD.

Common pitfalls

Anchoring without an exit. If you anchor and they say “we cannot get there,” you need a graceful next move (alternative compensation, equity, deferred review). Never anchor where you cannot walk.
Round numbers. $200,000 feels like a wish; $198,500 feels like a calculation. Use the calculation.
Letting their anchor stand. Silence on a low anchor is acceptance. Name it as theirs before countering.

Where it comes from

Tversky & Kahneman, Science (1974) · Galinsky & Mussweiler, JPSP (2001) · Janiszewski & Uy (2008) · Mason et al. (2013) · Ames & Mason (2015)

In your next meeting

Kennan watches for the conversational pattern this framework addresses and surfaces a first-person line you can read off your HUD, in the same shape as the example above. Frameworks are receipts; the user-facing output is a sentence, not a citation.