Status quo bias in behavioral economics and its applications

Abstract

The question of how individuals making decisions is of crucial interest in the field of economics and many other subjects. Evidences indicate that coming to the real-world decisions, many of people may tend to just stick with the default option instead of calculating the exact expected utility and making the most rational choices. In this paper, I will focus on this phenomenon and the psychological principles behind this. Results of empirical experiments and three specific applications including political elections, organ donations, school choices will be discussed.