Cognitive Bias Spotlight: The Goal IS the Solution

Author: Indigo Curnick

Date: 2026-05-02

#philosophy   #psychology   #critical-thinking  


Cognitive biases are slippery things which often lead us astray in making judgements or thinking. We always need to be aware of potential cognitive biases in a given situation, to help steer us clear of poor judgements.

To that end, this blog will attempt to illuminate a particularly nasty cognitive bias I often see, but as far as I can tell, has never been written about. I call it "The Solution is the Goal". It's a sub-type of the anchoring cognitive bias. It occurs when the anchoring is so strong the subject can't even conceive of another possible framing. To that end, we could call it the super-anchoring cognitive bias.

Let's first quickly review the anchoring cognitive bias. yourbias.is defines anchoring as

The first thing you judge influences your judgment of all that follows.

Human minds are associative in nature, so the order in which we receive information helps determine the course of our judgments and perceptions. For instance, the first price offered for a used car sets an ‘anchor’ price which will influence how reasonable or unreasonable a counter-offer might seem. Even if we feel like an initial price is far too high, it can make a slightly less-than-reasonable offer seem entirely reasonable in contrast to the anchor price.

Be especially mindful of this bias during financial negotiations such as houses, cars, and salaries. The initial price offered has proven to have a significant effect.

It doesn't just impact price negotiations, but also in solutions. Usually, our first idea isn't very good, but because it was the first one we anchor to it. In that scheme, we don't allow for new, better ideas.

Here's an example. Alice and Bob are in a room together, and Bob finds it too hot. He wants to cool down. Look at the following conversation.

Obviously the example is silly and exaggerated. However, we can see the structure of the bias.

Solution 2, while satisfying the goal better than solution 1, is rejected due to Bob anchoring to solution 1.

Let's now look at how "The Solution is the Goal" works.

There difference here is Bob is anchored so hard to solution 1 (turning down the TV), that in his mind solution 1 is the same thing as the goal. He can not even comprehend that there could be an alternative solution.

The reason why "The Solution is the Goal" is so insidious is because Bob can't even understand his own framing. At least in a standard anchoring, Bob comprehends that two solutions are being presented. You could draw up a pro and con list, or do some kind of analysis to try and show Bob why opening the window will lower the room temperature more than turning down the TV volume. However, in "The Solution is the Goal", you can't even show Bob a pro and con list. To him, turning down the TV has become the goal.

How do we fix this cognitive bias? Honestly, I haven't yet found a technique that demonstrates the flaw in the thinking to those that suffer from it. I'll try just linking this blog yourbias.is style and see if that helps! Another possible thing which could help would be to restate everything to the subject in a problem, goal, solution structure. One way you can avoid the anchoring bias, and this one by extension, is to always come up with a shortlist of three possible solutions to any given problem. Hopefully that way you can't anchor to just one of them. The best defence is to just be aware that you might fall into this trap!

Someone sent you this blog? Then unfortunately there's a good chance you currently suffer from "The Solution is the Goal" cognitive bias. That's okay. Breath. You can get through this. It isn't a personal attack; everyone suffers from biases from time to time. What you need to do is this: