We are wired to be free: it’s a function of the prefrontal cortex, experienced as free will and self-control. In a social context, freedom is expressed as a choice, pending on our ability to create options, evaluate outcomes, and make good decisions.

Freedom, naturally, is an expression of adaptive behavior. Freedom, naturally, changes us. If we resist change, we stop being free.

There’s one cognitive bias that takes away our freedom, switching off our growth mindset.

The status quo bias — the fear of failure — takes away our freedom to become.

A bit of science

Samuelson and Zeckhauser have shown that, in uncertain circumstances, people tend to avoid change, because maintaining the current situation is less emotionally draining than the prospect of changing our behavior and losing what we already have. We’d rather miss an opportunity out of inertia, than take the opportunity and fail.

Initially included as a cognitive fallacy in the theory for rational decision making under ambiguity proposed by Savage (1954), the status quo bias was later studied in relation to the neural activation of the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex. It turns out, the brain only starts evaluating outcomes in a rational manner if the area selecting for the default state is inhibited, allowing for the neural connectivity associated with difficult decision-making to occur.

The status quo bias is not simply resistance to change, it’s an automatic mechanism that occurs most often in difficult situations, distorting our perception of possible outcomes.

When this bias occurs, we are more likely to maintain unfavorable circumstances. For example, we are more likely to reject a great job offer for a challenging position, and keep the job we’re unhappy with. Faced with a difficult decision, we disconnect current preferences from subsequent choices, and start seeing the status quo as an opportunity, even if we genuinely dislike it.

The challenge

Non-rational mechanisms related to the status quo bias, including loss aversion and regret aversion, create barriers to social change and personal freedom. In business, the status quo increases passive behaviors and suboptimal decision-making. In everyday situations, it pushes us to sacrifice personal satisfaction in favor of security, and give up our freedom in exchange for predictability.

Thomas Khun, one of the most influential modern philosophers, addressed the problem of status quo bias in history, describing its impact on scientific innovation and revolutionary change. To counteract this bias, he proposes alternating between the default state and a revolutionary state, until the innovation is slowly accepted.

With logic alone, snapping out of the default state is harder than breaking down the change in small steps and stages, until the default state becomes undesirable.

The solution

What thought-strategy could possibly help us counter-act a bias so deeply ingrained that it alters our perception of freedom?

Describe your goal

The status quo bias is considerably more subtle than simply being stubborn or resistant to change. It distorts your actual preferences to match them with a default, present situation. Why compromise your freedom for something you happen to have at that time? By describing what you want to achieve, you always have a benchmark to compare your options with. Classify your choices as being neutral, helpful or unhelpful towards achieving your goal. The better you become at selecting helpful choices over neutral ones, the more successful you will be. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, Planning And Goal Setting As Change

Celebrate small victories

The status quo bias is more likely to occur when dealing with a difficult decision. If faced with simple decisions, switching from a default state to another happens with more ease, and is experienced positively. We love novelty and diversity, and prefer small changes over major ones. These are intrinsically rewarding, and feel like small victories. Break down your strategy in smaller stages and change your behavior progressively — James O. Prochaska, The Science of Change.

“You never create change by fighting the existent reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — Buckminster Fuller

I remember breaking my own status quo bias years ago, when I started traveling around the world, freelancing and making a video podcast. Ever since, purposeful work and freedom became the litmus test of all my choices. Earlier this year, my co-founder and I started working on Unbias, a bias awareness tool used to train key decision-making skills in the wokplace and everyday situations.