Status quo bias is a preference to keep things as they are. Any change from the current state of things is perceived as a loss. As a result, making positive changes in your life can be much harder than you think – simply because you will perceive them as losses, even if the current state of things is no longer optimal for you. There are several biases that interact with the status quo bias, such as loss aversion (tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains) and endowment effect (tendency to ascribe more value to things merely because you own them).

Avoid the status quo bias by: asking yourself if the status quo serves your goals, asking yourself if you would still choose it if it wasn’t in place, coming up with more choices, and not choosing the status quo because it’s difficult to make a decision.

Please refer to the book for more details on this activity.