{"id":57350,"date":"2024-04-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/propertyupdate.com.au\/?p=57350"},"modified":"2024-03-10T16:20:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T05:20:36","slug":"dont-let-the-status-quo-stop-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyupdate.com.au\/dont-let-the-status-quo-stop-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Let the Status Quo Stop You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of us really like the status quo.<\/p>\n

Even when we have a better alternative, many of us are content to keep on doing what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\"Chance-Youll-Do-Nothing\"<\/p>\n

I think about this every time my wife and I swap cars.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depending on who is running what errands that day, we\u2019ll switch between our big car and our little car.<\/p>\n

Every time we change, my wife has this habit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very good habit, but it\u2019s the exact opposite of what I do<\/span><\/h2>\n

Before she backs out of the garage, she adjusts everything. \r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/div><\/p>\n

The seat slides closer and the mirrors get moved.<\/p>\n

She even fiddles with the height of the seatbelt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only then does she head down the road.<\/p>\n

I, on the other hand, just get into the car and slide back the seat (because I wouldn\u2019t fit otherwise).<\/p>\n

But everything else I leave alone.<\/p>\n

Things are great \u2014 until I try to look in any of the mirrors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the mirrors are still where my wife left them, I can only see out of them if I slouch down and move back and forth.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been known to do this for an entire day.<\/p>\n

But sometimes, I\u2019ve been in this ridiculous position sitting at a stop light, and I\u2019ve thought to my slouched-down self, \u201cJust reach up and adjust the mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes less than 10 seconds, and my whole day gets a lot more comfortable.<\/p>\n

So why don\u2019t I skip the slouching and adjust my mirrors every time we swap cars?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think about it.<\/p>\n

You could call me lazy, but I call it status quo bias<\/span><\/h2>\n

I didn\u2019t just make that up. Researchers have known about this quirk for a while.<\/p>\n

Even in the face of what would clearly be a better alternative, humans have a tendency to leave things the same.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cwhy\u201d behind this bias fascinates me.<\/p>\n

In 1988,\u00a0William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser<\/a>\u00a0gave a name to our habit of disproportionately sticking with the status quo.<\/p>\n

The bias was so obvious that researchers could see it in a simple, multiple-choice questionnaire that study participants completed.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking about random, \u201cwhat-if\u201d questions that would have zero personal impact on a participant, like, \u201cHow would you allocate the budget for the National Highway Safety Commission?\u201d<\/p>\n

People still showed a strong preference for the choice identified as the status quo.<\/p>\n

There has been a lot of work done in this area since,\u00a0including an interesting study<\/a>\u00a0by Alexander Kempf and Stefan Ruenzi.<\/p>\n

Using the\u00a0mutual fund\u00a0industry, they found two things:<\/strong><\/p>\n