Status quo bias

Practicalpsychologyeconomicssystems

Etymology

"Status quo" is Latin for "the state in which" (things currently stand). "Bias," via Old French, means a slant or lean. So the term is a lean toward the existing state. Economists Samuelson and Zeckhauser documented it experimentally in 1988.

  1. noun · /STAT-us kwoh BY-us/

    A preference for keeping things as they are, treating the current state as the default even when change would help.

    What it names

    Why defaults are so powerful, why we stay on the wrong plan, and why "do nothing" quietly wins arguments it shouldn’t.

    Example

    Everyone agreed the old vendor was worse, but status quo bias kept the contract renewing year after year.

    Related idea

    The endowment effect (overvaluing what you already have) and default bias both push in the same direction.

See also

Appeal to TraditionAutomation biasConservatismDecision fatigueDefault biasDefault effectEndowment effectGrandfather clauseInertiaNormalcy biasNudge (economics)Shifting baseline syndromeSunk cost fallacy