Status quo bias

Have you ever experienced the Japanese commuter rush in the morning? No? Lucky you. While living in Tokyo, I had endured the cruel treatment every morning for more than three years. On the platform of any station in Japan, door positions are marked up. Seeing long queues at the marks on the platform, morning commuters sigh at the thought of a great trip ahead.

Strangely enough, people in respective morning commute queues were always almost the same. Me? Yes, always in the same queue without a rational reason. I don’t think other people also would have had a particular reason. Every morning, the usual faces in my queue reminded me that I was firmly caught up in the status quo bias. It seems human beings really dislike changes. Today, I didn’t mean to criticize from a height, saying “You should change,” but try to defend the human nature somehow.

The good balance of risk orientation

As most of you may have already known about the bias, let me explain its basic structure. We select our behavior every second. The selection is made by the comparison of reward and loss resulting from the behavior. What is important here is we are designed to take loss more seriously because it’s related more directly to our lives. In other words, our survival instinct makes us avoid changes. Due to the self-defense instinct, most of us avoid changes, while just a few people aspire to them. In any age, innovators, reformers, or first penguins are more likely to be touted, but I believe the good balance of risk orientation is important to make our society more resilient and sustainable. Changes need objects to be changed, such as social norms or people every morning in the same queue without a rational reason.

Moderation in all things

Basically, CondeHouse is a conservative business. To begin with, furniture manufacturing is not novel or trendy at all. Most of the directors still wear ties and jackets, not in black turtlenecks and jeans. However, our president is always actively adopting latest technologies, business schemes, etc. This good balance may be one of the reasons why the company is resilient to survive for more than 50 years.

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