Status Quo Bias: Why We Stick With What We Know

Status Quo Bias: Why We Stick With What We Know You have been meaning to switch banks for years. The fees are too high, the interest rates are too low, and the mobile app is terrible. Yet here you are, still with the same bank. This is status quo bias -- our irrational preference for the current state of affairs, even when better alternatives are readily available. What Is Status Quo Bias? Status quo bias is the tendency to prefer the existing state of things over change. When faced with a decision, people disproportionately choose the option that maintains the current situation. This happens even when the costs of switching are minimal and the benefits are clear. William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser first formally described this bias in 1988. Their experiments showed that when one option was labeled as the status quo, participants chose it significantly more often than when the same option was presented without that label. The mere fact of being "current" gave an option an unfair