142. Status Quo Bias: Why Change Feels Terrifying, a Behavioral Economics Foundations Episode

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today is all about status quo bias. This is perhaps one of the most foundational foundations there is. It truly is at the center of so many biases and heuristics the brain uses to make decisions, which is why you have heard me talk about it a lot on the show. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most recently, I talked about this on episode 139 on the endowment effect, and that is because these two are commonly combined with loss aversion to come up with a “trifecta” that keeps us stuck. In today’s episode, I’ll go beyond explaining what status quo bias and why it is such a foundational foundation...and give you tips for how to be more effective personally, with colleagues, and the two ways to use it with customers (if you get it wrong it can mean a huge loss in conversions!)</span></p> <h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Show Notes:</span></h3> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[00:41] Today we will be talking all about status quo bias which is perhaps one of the most foundational foundations there is.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[02:34] First: a reminder of how the brain works. All our brains have a conscious and subconscious processing working concurrently all the time.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[03:07] The subconscious is in charge 99% of the time.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[03:52] The average person makes 35,000 decisions every single day.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[04:52] The subconscious decides what is considered “normal” by using biases and heuristics (or rules of thumb). Things that have worked in the past that it believes apply to that specific situation by a millisecond choice.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[05:29] Your brain wants to have as much as possible processed by your subconscious because it is more efficient. It uses less energy. It is faster and it thinks it knows best. Because the subconscious is a creature of habit and predictability,