People disproportionately stick with the status quo even when change is more rational

Evidence

Status quo bias is a pattern that often occurs in many different areas of human life and can be defined as a biased preference for the current way of doing things (Godefroid et al. 2023). Experimental studies on decision-­making have shown that individuals disproportionately stick with the status quo (Samuelson and Zeckhauser 1988), even when it would be more rational to opt for change. Psychological theories suggest that people may avoid change because they overestimate the potential instability caused by change or feel attached to what they have invested time and effort in understanding (Bolsen et al. 2014). Recent work by Arceneaux and Nicholson (2024) shows that anchoring, the tendency to rely heavily on an initial reference point, can also contribute to status quo bias. — Mikael Persson and Anders Sundell, Blocking the Poor, 35

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines status quo bias as a biased preference for the current way of doing things, plus the mechanisms (loss-aversion-like attachment, overestimated instability, anchoring) offered for it.
• XREF: Connects to behavioral economics canon — Samuelson & Zeckhauser’s status quo bias work, Kahneman & Tversky on loss aversion, and Arceneaux & Nicholson on anchoring in political cognition.