COGNITIVE BIAS
Status Quo Bias
Familiar can feel correct
What it means
Status quo bias is the tendency to prefer an existing arrangement partly because it already exists. Change may receive extra scrutiny while the costs and failures of the current system fade into the background. Keeping a system can be reasonable; familiarity alone is not a sufficient reason.
Typical uses
Regulation, organizational routines, technology adoption, neighborhood change, benefits programs, and any decision comparing an established system with a proposed alternative.
ORIGIN
Where the idea came from
- Creator or lineage
- William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser
- Country
- United States
- Years
- Contemporary researchers; complete birth years are not consistently published
- Development
- Named and tested in a 1988 paper.
- Catchphrase
- “Familiar can feel correct”
An existing arrangement may receive extra preference simply because it is already in place.
Read the source: Original 1988 research paperQUESTIONS TO ASK
- Are the current system’s costs being counted?
- Would we choose this arrangement if starting today?
- Is the preference based on evidence or familiarity?
You do not need to know this concept’s name to use its reasoning. The name simply helps you recognize, examine, and discuss the pattern.
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