Choosing by Default
A cognitive bias where decisions are made by defaulting to a pre-established option without evaluating alternatives, often due to historical precedent, salience, or conspicuousness.
THE IDEA
CHOOSING BY DEFAULT
Choices are ordinarily thought to be based on some type of assessment of options (if only an intuitive affective impression). However, some choice procedures may bypass the evaluation stage altogether, deferring instead to a default option. Defaults may be established via historical precedent, perceptual salience, conspicuousness, or some other feature that qualitatively distinguishes one option from the rest.
When to use it
Designing default options in software to encourage better security settings.
Setting default organ donation as opt-out to increase donor rates.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Default Retirement Contribution
When employees are automatically enrolled in a retirement savings plan with a default contribution rate, many remain at that rate even if a higher rate would be more beneficial, simply because it is the default option.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
What are some defaults in your daily life that you have not questioned?
How might default options in public policy influence behavior without conscious awareness?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Heuristics and Biases The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment (Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, Daniel Kahneman)