7.6.2. How It Works
At least two things are going on here. The first is the effect of the way the choice is presentedthe framing effect. Anyone who has ever tried to persuade someone of something knows the importance of this. It’s not just what you say, but how you say it, that is important when presenting people with a choice or argument. The second thing is a bias we have against risking an already satisfactory situationwe’re much more willing to take risks when we’re in a losing position to begin with. In the examples, the first frame makes it look like you stand to gain without having to take a riskthe choice is between definitely saving 200 people versus an all-or-nothing gamble. The second frame makes it appear as though you start in a losing position (400 people down) and you can risk the all-or-nothing gamble to potentially improve your standing. In experimental studies of this dilemma, around 75% of people favor not gambling in the first frame, with the situation reversed in the second.4
So why do we gamble when we think we might lose out, but have a bias to avoid gambling on gains? I’m going to argue that this is part of a general bias we have toward the way things are. Let’s call it the “status quo bias.” This is probably built into our minds by evolutionnature’s way of saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
With habits, it is easy to see why the status quo bias is evolutionary adaptive. If you did it last time and it didn’t kill you, why do it differently? Sure, you could try things differently, but why waste the effort, especially if there’s any risk at all of things getting worse?
Taken from : Mind Hacks
