Defaults
Notes
Defaults are a very powerful tool for decision making, because most often people tend to stick to the default option, if such exist, or a no-choice option, if no default is present. This could be due to:
- Lack of awareness - we are not aware the power defaults have on us, or that we do have a better option. mindfulness
- Ambivalence - we don't care which option to choose, so might as well stick to the default Indifference
- Low friction - by being the default, it often involves Friction to switch to a different option, which makes it so much harder to choose otherwise Saying no.
- Exhaustion - Since making a good choice requires willpower, which is a limited resource, we can't rely on it to constantly save us from defaults. When we are exhausted, we are much more likely to follow with the default behavior rather than making a better choice.
- Emotional instability - Defaults are usually tempting, which means we need Emotional Resilience to combat the urge to stick with it.
Defaults can be good or bad, depending on the default choice. Unfortunately, the Attention Economy pushes us towards negative defaults such as doom scrolling. However, we can design an environment with good defaults, for example using Commitment Devices that turns the good behavior into the default one, such as using an automated transfer into savings account every month.
Bad defaults
Visual
Overview
🔼Topic:: Decision Making (MOC) ↩️Origin:: 🔗Link::