The status quo traps

An introduction to a series on the ways we stay stuck

The main theme of Status No is easy to summarise: we don’t change when we should. But like a doctor telling a patient “your diet is unhealthy”, this isn’t very useful yet. We need more: what specifically is wrong with my diet? And how can I improve it? If we understand the various ways we get it wrong, we can strive to do better. The same goes for detaching ourselves from the status quo. There’s more than one way to get stuck, and escaping requires a more thoughtful response.

That’s what I’ll be providing in a new series launching next week. I’ll spend the next several editions examining the collection of traps that hinder our ability to change. So, what are “status quo traps” and why should you care to learn about them?

Concisely, they are the different ways that we avoid change. And they share some other features too.

They are shortcuts that make life easy. Don’t know what to eat? Just order what you did last time. Instead of thinking for yourself, just follow the group. Staying with the default saves us from the effort of deliberation.

They aren’t fully optimal or rational strategies since the status quo may not be what’s best for us. This is different from a rational motive to maintain the status quo - when it is superior, when success with alternatives is uncertain, or when the cost of change is prohibitive. Instead, we fall into these traps against our best interest - simply because they are the status quo. If we had chosen without a default present, we would make a different, and often better, decision.

Lastly, these effects act partially or fully below consciousness. When we form a habit of brushing our teeth, we don’t think about the decision anymore, we simply do it every day. We’re surprised when we learn that we’ve chosen a default simply because it was presented to us. And sometimes we are completely unaware of having a decision to make in the first place.

As for the question of why you should care. Every decision we face may suffer because of them. I’ll show that these errors are subtle, wide-ranging and significant influences on our functioning. Escaping them starts by identifying them.

The series will start with the tendency to “do what you’re told” when really you should be thinking for yourself. This will be followed by our bias to follow our past selves, our reliance on change-resistant mental shortcuts, and lastly our invisible choices, which is our tendency to pretend we have no choice to make. Along the way I’ll cover some topics I believe many will be familiar with: habits, tradition and conformity. And some I suspect will be new such as the longevity bias, the Semmelweis reflex and invisible choices.

I’m excited to start sharing this series with you. It’s the more detailed diagnosis of the problem that’s needed to identify the course of treatment.