Social Anchoring

The author’s five actions are not doing much for me, but I love his concept of social anchoring. I’ve never heard it before.

It fits nicely with the conventional wisdom of sticking with the winners.

I found one source (though, hardly authoritative) that defines it as “basing your attitudes, actions and values on the position by taken by other people. Social anchoring implies a person’s lack of capability in making accurate and independent judgments.”

Of course, this definition frames social anchoring as a negative. This would make sense if it’s rooted in a lack of personal agency.

However, if social anchoring is deliberate and a tool for achieving one’s goals, kind of like a Ulysses Pact. (Ulysses had his crew tie him to the mast to resist the siren song and ordered them to ignore his pleas to release him.)

Another way to frame it is as a strategy to overcome present bias. This video explains it really well.