Status Quo Bias and Disrupting the Status Quo
I believe when you’ve been stuck too long in one spot, it’s best to throw a grenade and jump. And pray. - Robyn, From the movie “Tracks”
“It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning,” Lincoln Steffens wrote in his beautiful 1925 essay.
Piercingly true as this may be, we’ve known at least since Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave (The nature of Truth and Reality) “most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance, but hostile to anyone who points it out.”. Although science is driven by “thoroughly conscious ignorance” and the spiritual path paved with admonitions against the illusion of thorough understanding, we cling to our knowledge — our incomplete, imperfect, infinitesimal-in-absolute-terms knowledge — like we cling to life itself.
And yet the contour of what we know is a mere silhouette cast by the infinite light of the unknown against the screen of the knowable. The great E.F. Schumacher captured this strange dynamic in the concept of adaequatio — the notion that “the understanding of the knower must be adequate to the thing to be known.” But how do we face our inadequacy with grace and negotiate wisely this eternal tension between the known, the unknown, the knowable, and the unknowable?
The pure scientific method, the idea that science seeks to disprove itself constantly, it so elevated human thinking beyond any other form - religion, whatever - that we’ve chosen to engage in as a species. - From the wired article “How Christopher Nolan Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI”
Falsification is the brainchild of Karl Popper, who, ninety years ago, in his Logic of Scientific Discovery, pointed out that it’s more logical to mobilize facts to knock out ideas than to confirm them. Today, we can use data for this. Instead of using data as a source of inspiration, we can use it as a source of falsification. - From the wired article “Optimizing Machines Is Perilous. Consider ‘Creatively Adequate’ AI.”
Five hundred years ago, Niccolò Machiavelli, the guru of practicality, pointed out that worldly success requires a counterintuitive kind of courage: the heart to venture beyond what we know with certainty. Life, after all, is too fickle to permit total knowledge, and the more that we obsess over ideal answers, the more that we hamper ourselves with lost initiative. So, the smarter strategy is to concentrate on intel that can be rapidly acquired—and to advance boldly in the absence of the rest. Much of that absent knowledge will prove unnecessary, anyway; life will bend in a different direction than we anticipate, resolving our ignorance by rendering it irrelevant. - From the wired article “Optimizing Machines Is Perilous. Consider ‘Creatively Adequate’ AI.”
In behavioral economics, this phenomenon is known as status quo bias. People are generally predisposed to favor sticking with their current circumstances, whatever they may be, instead of taking a risk and bushwhacking their way toward a different life. - From the article “An Economist’s Rule for Making Tough Life Decisions”
It is easy—maybe too easy—to stop asking yourself what would make you happy, and stay close to the things that you think will make you safe. This is wrong, and I will tell you why: you are never safe. Loss and change are constants. You will never be safe, and you may not always be happy—but you owe it to yourself to start asking the question. - From the article “An Economist’s Rule for Making Tough Life Decisions”
Even when life improves, it’s useful to remember that the status quo is often not as steady and reliable as it seems. - From the article “An Economist’s Rule for Making Tough Life Decisions”
Status quo bias is predicated on our hesitation to make a change unless we’re sure that the benefits outweigh the risks. We’re more scared of what we might lose than we are excited about what we might gain. - From the article “An Economist’s Rule for Making Tough Life Decisions”
If we upend our current way of thinking, we can achieve revolutions.
Status Quo Bias
Status quo bias is defined as the preference for maintaining one’s current situation and opposing actions that may change the state of affairs.
The term was coined in 1988 by researchers William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser in the academic article “Status Quo Bias in Decision-Making.” They conducted decision-making experiments to show that when given the choice between the status quo and a new option, individuals were more likely to stick with what they already knew.
Status quo bias is a cognitive bias based in emotion. Change naturally invites risk, and people may be uncomfortable putting themselves in situations where the outcome is uncertain. This tendency to keep things the way they are can have a considerable effect on how people behave in virtually any aspect of life.
People tend to avoid change. Whether it’s deciding what to order at a restaurant or some other major decision in life, choosing something you’re already familiar with is often the most tempting path.
But if you want to stay competitive, change is necessary.
Effects
- Status quo bias negatively affects your ability to make decisions. Your ingrained preference for stability keeps you from judging different options fairly, which may cause you to miss out on valuable opportunities.
- Status quo bias can also hinder your growth trajectory. If you aren’t willing to take risks that could benefit you at large, you could begin to stagnate. In addition, status quo bias plays a role in an your ability to adapt to new processes and procedures.
How to Overcome Status Quo Bias
Overcoming cognitive biases is part of effectively inspiring change. At a large scale, the poor decision making caused by the status quo bias can greatly affect the success you achieve. You may miss out on new growth opportunities simply because you were afraid to take a risk.
Here’s how you can avoid status quo bias when faced with a change.
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Learn to recognize status quo bias in yourself and others
One of the best ways to reduce status quo bias is to simply acknowledge it when it happens. Whenever a new change is proposed at work, pay attention to how you react. Are you hesitant? If so, why? Getting to the root of your concerns can help you determine if status quo basis is playing a role.
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Weigh the advantages and disadvantages
Status quo bias is closely related to loss aversion—the idea that people focus more on what they stand to lose from a decision than what they stand to gain. To help your team understand the possible outcome of an organizational change, consider creating a list of pros and cons. Let your team members contribute to the list and discuss each point during a team meeting.
As much as possible, try to devote an equal amount of time to both the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed change. This will ensure that you are not inadvertently gravitating toward the negatives.
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Frame the default option as a loss
Keeping in mind the loss aversion principle, you may want to frame the default option as a loss when persuading others to take action. For example, if you’re trying to get your team on board with a new reporting tool, take the time to explain what they would lose out on by not adopting the new process. Maybe the existing process is more time consuming or doesn’t provide the same level of insights. In this case, you would emphasize that not taking action would lead to lost time and a poorer quality of work.
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Follow the REDUCE framework
REDUCE is a change management framework that focuses on breaking down common barriers to change. It stands for Reactance, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty, and Corroborating Evidence. Follow this framework when you present a new idea to your team to get them excited about the possibility of change.
For more information on how to use this framework, read our article, “What to Know About the REDUCE Framework for Change Management.” https://online.wharton.upenn.edu/blog/reduce-framework-for-change-management/
Reading material
Disrupt the status quo
https://blog.nateliason.com/p/you-have-no-idea-how-much-better
You Have No Idea How Much Better You Can Feel.
The author talks about how two of this friends had to move out of the city that they are living in. Moving out of a city is hard, especially, if they love the city, have a lot of friends in the city, have routines, regular spots, etc. If someone spent years trying to build a home somewhere, they will do everything they can to not have to move out of there.
But, in some situations in life, moving is necessary. e.g. sensitivity to allergy causing things like mold, grass, and cedar. For you, the city is unlivable. You can try everything science has to offer it to combat it. But nothing would work. Ultimately the only choice left was to leave. Somewhere else, they can feel like their whole selves again.
No one should have to live at some fraction of their mental and physical capacity.
The surprising thing is, we don’t recognize that it is time for us to move - or it is time for us to change things - it is time for us to disrupt the status quo. You can’t notice you’re living in a fog until the air suddenly clears. We don’t sense that anything was wrong with the way we are living until we take a cross-country road trip, and after a few days “wake up” and realize what kind of a life we had been living. And even after realizing something is wrong, it takes years to figure out what it was.
Many of us are walking through life at a fraction of our capacity because we’re being handicapped by lifestyle factors that we’re completely unaware of.
We often tell ourselves some version of “I feel fine. My life is fine”. But what if the scale we’re measuring our subjective state on is only a fraction of the true range? If you’ve never experienced being above a 6 out of 10, then being at a 6 will seem great. You could feel so much better, but since you’ve never experienced it, you don’t know to seek it out.
This is why conveying the benefits of certain uncomfortable challenges like endurance sports, heavy weight lifting, or ice baths is so hard. It seems like a terrible trade to someone who has yet to experience the benefits. They have to have faith that you’re not a crazy person who likes punishing yourself and that, yes, indeed, there is a sense of euphoria that comes from freezing your balls off for three minutes.
But the subtle ways you might be harming yourself are much harder to weed out.
You probably have a bunch of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, given how low the nutrient density in our food has gotten. Do you know which ones you’re deficient in? No?
I suspect that everyone reading this has a hidden ten, twenty, or thirty percent total life improvement they can unlock if they figure out what’s secretly holding them back. Sometimes it’s obvious, like smoking, not sweating daily, or being overweight. But other times, it’s something you know nothing about.
The challenge is how to root out these problems and live a healthier life without becoming a completely orthorexic butthole-sunning loon about it. There is a growing reaction to this trend of over-optimization.
But the trend of obsessing over fixing something in our health points to an unspoken awareness of the problem. Most of us are sick in some way, and some part of us knows it. So we hop on the latest fad diet, or morning routine, or supplement, or workout gear, in the hopes that this will fix whatever it is. Sometimes that’s harmless, like spending a few minutes in an ice bath each week. But other times, it’s terrifying, like signing up for a lifetime of TRT, SSRIs, or Amphetamine.
So what can we do? If we accept that, yes, we’re all probably sick in some unknown way, and if we identify it and fix it, we can unlock a level of day-to-day existence we never knew existed, then what is the prescription?
We have to
periodically mess with our status quo.
To shake up the snow globe.
If someone says some new way of living changed their life, just try it. See what happens.
It doesn’t matter if the carnivore or vegan diets are healthy or not, do it for a week and see how you feel. Do thirty minutes of cardio every day for a couple of weeks. Get in the ice bath.
And it doesn’t have to just be physical stuff. Start meditating. Journal. Write down what you’re grateful for each morning. Scream whatever you want to manifest at yourself in the mirror each morning until your neighbors call the cops on you.
Do things you think are stupid but other people swear by. Maybe you’re the stupid one.
And then there are the other boring things we should all do. Get your blood tested and pay for the more expensive test that goes through all your hormones, vitamins, and minerals. Do a heavy metals test. Do a stress test. Wear a continuous glucose monitor for a month. Make sure your body is functioning as well as you think it is. It probably isn’t.
Don’t get tricked by I feel fine.