Episode 2

Can we explain a wide variety of human behaviour - from unwillingness to go for health screening, to opposition to a new railway - as different versions of what is called 'status quo bias'?

What does it mean to say that we are biased towards the status quo? We all think we have our reasons for our preferences. And we do. But is one of them a feeling of which we can be entirely unaware - a tendency to resist change and prefer things just the way they are, simply because that's the way they are now?

In the Human Zoo this week, we'll hear the experiments that seem to show people clinging on to what they've got - even when they are certain to gain from changing. In other words, a suggestion that we don't judge the merits of a choice in an even-handed way, but are biased in favour of where we start from, even when that bias clearly costs us.

So, does status quo bias also suggest that we are irrational? Possibly. Although some argue that it often makes sense. Even so, it has implications for everything from the businesses who go on taking ever bigger risks to attempt to avoid the horror of a loss, to people's scepticism of new building, technology, or change of any kind. It might even help to explain why you can't seem to stop yourself arriving habitually late.

The Human Zoo, where we see public decisions viewed through private thoughts, is presented by Michael Blastland, with the trusted guidance of Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School.

Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.