Chapter 8
Ease
Human nature is above all things lazy’
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
Take the chart below; what do you think it shows?
Source: Adapted from Johnson, E. J. and Goldstein, D. G. (2003). Science, 302, 8–1339.
This is data for consent rates for organ donation: the countries on the left are opt-in, and those on the right are opt-out.1 Even with something as affecting as organ donation, people are generally happy to do whatever’s easiest – in this case, sticking with things as they are rather than having to make an effortful decision for oneself.
This is a cognitive bias known as ‘status quo bias’: essentially, people tend to leave things as ...
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