Why We Stay on the Train
How thinking about the future puts constraints on the present
One of the most fascinating quirks of human psychology is our reluctance to change our course of action. We commit to jobs, relationships, investments and social activities with a limited set of information, and then go about the process of reconciling our expectations with our lived experience, often rationalizing any shortcomings along the way. We endure a painful job because that promotion is just around the corner. We hold onto a sinking stock because we would kick ourselves for selling it right before it turns around.
This tendency to prefer our current state is called the status quo bias. It feels a bit like being on a train that might not be taking you to your destination, but instead of getting off, you decide you’d rather ride it out.
Recently I’ve been trying to reconcile this bias in my own behavior, and come to see that one of the most powerful barriers to change is the cognitive weight of rewriting one’s story. The potential loss of the narrative we have been telling ourselves about who we are, where we’re going, and how we get there.
I’ll be using this article as a way to indulge in some introspection, built on psychology and behavioral economic theory. I started to dig into this topic because I wanted to try…
