When the default condition meant we didn't save (since we were required to opt in), we didn't save. Now, with automatic enrollment, the default condition means we do save (since we are required to opt out).

By flipping the frame, we turn bad behavior (not saving) into good behavior (saving). This is done simply by reversing the polarity of the status quo.

Anchoring transforms itself from something that harms retirement savers to something that benefits retirement savers.

The average salary deferral rate is just under 7 percent, but financial advisers agree it should be about 15 percent—and that's if you start deferring at that rate with your very first job. If you start saving later, that required deferral rate rises.

What's the easiest way to address this? Make the deferral option 15 percent instead of the usual 6 percent. What's that, you say? You think this is ridiculously high? Well, that's what people used to say about 6 percent.

We can use anchoring to help here, too. If we gave employees the option of saving at either a 20 percent rate or a default rate of 15 percent, then 15 percent won't appear too large because the first thing people saw was the 20 percent deferral rate.

This is all fine and dandy for newly minted college graduates entering the workforce for the first time, but what about more seasoned employees?

Just as we have auto-enrollment, we also have auto-escalation. More than three-quarters of the firms using auto-escalation increase the deferral rate automatically by 1 percent annually. Again, the status quo isn't to opt in, but to opt out.

At this rate, though, it will take more than a decade for employees to reach their optimal deferral rate. Again, anchoring can come to the rescue by giving employees an option to automatically escalate at 3 percent if they choose to or 2 percent if they do nothing.

That's how anchoring can be used for good.