Status-Quo and Omission Biases

Ilana Ritov and Jonathan Baron

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1992, vol. 5, issue 1, 49-61

Abstract: Bias toward the status quo, found in choice and in emotional reactions to adverse outcomes, has been confounded with bias toward omission. The authors unconfounded these effects with scenarios in which change occurs unless action is taken. Subjects reacted more strongly to adverse outcomes caused by action, whether the status quo was maintained or not, and subjects preferred inaction over action even when inaction was associated with change. No status-quo bias was found in a matching task, which did not require action. The observed status-quo bias is at least partly caused by a bias toward omissions. Copyright 1992 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (106)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jrisku:v:5:y:1992:i:1:p:49-61

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/11166/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty is currently edited by W. Kip Viscusi

More articles in Journal of Risk and Uncertainty from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().