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The Status Quo Bias
The status quo bias refers to the idea of preferring that your environment and situation remain as it is.
In decision making, someone impacted by the status quo bias tends to prefer the familiar choice, even if another option is potentially more beneficial.
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Real-world example of status quo bias
- When offered other sandwich options for lunch, individuals often choose a sandwich they have eaten before.
- In 1985, Coca Cola brought out a "New Coke". Consumers chose the Coke Classic even though blind taste tests found that consumers preferred New Coke.
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Sunk costs
The sunk cost fallacy refers to the idea that a person will often continue to invest resources such as time, money, or effort into a specific course of action, even if it is failing.
The sunk cost fallacy contribute to the status quo bias because the more a person invests in a statu...
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Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance results from holding two opposing views or thoughts. However, holding two opposing views makes people feel uncomfortable and cause them to choose one option to maintain cognitive consistency.
In decision-making, individuals tend to see one optio...
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Mere exposure effect
The mere exposure effect states that people prefer something they've been exposed to before.
If we are more exposed to the status quo, then that exposure creates a preference for the status quo.
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Rationality vs irrationality
A status quo bias can be rational if the potential transition cost is more than the benefits of switching to the alternative.
Status quo bias is irrational when individuals ignore choices that are beneficial to their situation because they want to ...
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Loss aversion
Studies show that in decision-making, individuals weigh the potential for loss more heavily than the potential for gain.
They will focus on what they could lose by rejecting the status quo rather than on what they could gain by trying...
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Early research of status quo bias
In a 1988 article named "Status quo bias in decision making", researchers described various decision-making experiments that demonstrated the existence of the bias.
In one experiment, two groups were given a hypothetical scenario of inheriting a large sum of mo...
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More like this
Status quo bias
Status quo bias is when we prefer that our environment and situation should remain unchanged.
The bias has the most impact in the area of decision-making, as we tend to prefer the more familiar choice over the less familiar, but often better, option.
Common Explanations for Status Quo Bias
These explanations are all irrational for preferring the status quo:
- Loss Aversion: When we make decisions, we weigh the potential for loss more heavily than the potential for gain.
- Sunk Costs: We continue to invest resources like time, mone...
The world of the status quo bias
Making an alternative choice is hard because we are neurologically wired to favor the default solution, even if it brings suboptimal results.
As the complexity of a decision increases, so does our tendency to stick with the answer we know.
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