The action bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to favor action over inaction, without properly considering the outcomes that this will bring. For example, the action bias can drive someone to make unnecessary changes to their investment portfolio, even if it would be better for them to do nothing.
The action bias has major implications in various domains, so it’s important to understand it. As such, in the following article you will learn more about this bias, and see what you can do about it in practice.
Examples of the action bias
An example of the action bias is that, when it comes to medical treatments, patients often insist on receiving certain treatments (e.g., unnecessary antibiotics), even when those treatments offer them no health benefits but cause harmful side effects.
Another example of the action bias in a similar context is that medical practitioners often choose to give patients unnecessary tests, in situations where it would be better to just wait. This issue is especially prevalent in cases where the patient is a VIP (e.g., because they’re a famous politician or celebrity), a phenomenon known as VIP syndrome.
In addition, an example of the action bias in the context of sports is that, when it comes to soccer penalty kicks, goalkeepers often jump to the sides in their attempts to stop the ball (i.e., take action), even when staying in the center (i.e., inaction) can be expected to lead to better outcomes.
Finally, another example of this bias is the following:
“An example of action bias from the water industry may be partial lead service line replacements. As public water systems had no legal means to compel property owners to replace their lead service lines, many water utilities used to replace only that segment under their control. In these cases, the desire to fix the problem, to do something, was clear.
However, the only way to remove lead contamination is to eliminate the lead pipes altogether, and studies have shown that partial lead pipe replacement can potentially disturb the system, stirring up particulate lead that would have remained dormant if left alone until the entire line could be replaced.”
Note: The term “action bias” is sometimes also used to refer to similar phenomena, as in the case of law, where it sometimes refers to the tendency to assign greater legal significance to actions than to failures to act.
Psychology and causes of the action bias
The action bias is attributed to several potential causes, which can act in various combinations in different situations:
- People may expect action to lead to better outcomes in general than inaction. For example, if people expect taking action to lead to better outcomes (e.g., increased financial profits or improved sports performance) on average, then they may take action by default, even in situations where doing so leads to worse outcomes.
- People may value outcomes more when they come from action than from inaction. For example, people often value positive outcomes (e.g., winning a game) more when the outcomes are attributable to their actions than to their inaction, which can prompt those people to take action even if it would be better for them to do nothing.
- People may believe that they will be perceived more favorably for action than inaction. For example, people may be motivated to act because they believe that this will cause others to perceive them as more competent, regardless of whether taking action is beneficial or not. This is especially common when potential gains from taking action will help a person cross “bright lines” that make them and their behavior readily noticeable to others, for example in terms of getting credit from others for a project’s success.
- Taking action by default may be more efficient. For example, when the resources (e.g., time and effort) required for determining whether it’s best to act or not are smaller than the expected improvement in performance that they will lead to, it can be better to choose to simply take action by default (i.e., as a heuristic).
- Taking action may increase opportunities to learn. For example, someone might choose to take action if they believe that this will help them learn more than inaction will. This, in turn, can lead to better outcomes in the long term, for example by helping avoid inertia and stagnation, even if it leads to worse outcomes in the short term.
- Taking action may increase people’s sense of control. For example, taking action might help someone feel that they are in charge and are actively deciding what will happen, whereas inaction might make them feel passive and helpless.
The action bias occurs when these considerations are largely unconscious, meaning that they drive people’s decision-making even though those people haven’t properly weighed these benefits against the potential downsides of taking action.
How to deal with the action bias
To reduce someone’s action bias, including your own, you can use the following techniques:
- Outline the potential consequences of the actions prompted by the action bias, while making sure to pay attention to the negative ones.
- Outline the potential consequences of inaction, while making sure to pay attention to the positive ones.
- Directly compare the pros and cons of action to each other, as well as to those of inaction.
- Frame inaction as an active choice, rather than a passive one.
- Show that inaction can be considered the expected norm in that situation.
- Use or encourage the use of general debiasing techniques, such as slowing down the reasoning process and making it explicit.
Different combinations of these techniques will lead to better outcomes depending on various personal and situational factors. For example, if you want to convince someone to keep waiting because inaction will be better for them, then you might want to use different techniques than if you just want to encourage someone to consider situations carefully before acting.
In addition, it can be beneficial to account for the action bias when it comes to understanding and predicting people’s behavior, including your own, even if you don’t intend to reduce this bias directly. For example, accounting for the action bias can help you predict that you’re likely to panic and sell your financial investments too early, which can then lead you to use precommitment techniques that will prevent you from doing so, such as making it harder for you to access to your investments.
Finally, remember that despite the issues associated with the action bias, it’s nevertheless often better to prefer action over inaction. This means that when dealing with potential action bias, you shouldn’t go too far in the other direction and display inaction bias, but rather assess the situation properly, to determine what you should do.
Related concepts
The commission bias
The action bias is sometimes also called the commission bias, and this term is also used to refer to the broad phenomenon of favoring outcomes that result from action over those that result from inaction. The commission bias is contrasted with the omission bias, which involves favoring inaction over action, especially when it comes to favoring negative outcomes that result from inaction over those that result from action.
Which of these phenomena a person experiences depends on various factors. For example, people are more likely to display the commission bias than the omission bias in situations where the norm is to prefer action over inaction, and vice versa.
The action effect
The action bias is closely related to the action effect, which leads people to experience more regret in response to outcomes that were achieved due to action than due to inaction. This is contrasted with the inaction effect, which leads people to experience more regret in response to inaction than action.
Whether a person experiences an action or inaction effect depends on various factors. For example, people are generally more likely to experience the action effect when making decisions in response to prior outcomes that were positive, or when making decisions in isolation, whereas the inaction effect is more likely when a decision is made in response to prior negative outcomes.
Other related phenomena
Another psychological phenomenon that can involve similar patterns of behavior as the action bias is precrastination, which involves rushing to do things early, even when doing so is expected to lead to issues such as reduced efficiency and worse outcomes.
In addition, various phenomena lead to somewhat opposite patterns of behavior than the action bias. These include, for example, the status quo bias, which causes people to prefer to maintain the current state of things, and the default bias, which causes people to prefer the default option available to them. These biases can be attributed to various causes, such as loss aversion, whereby the pain of losing something is psychologically stronger than the pleasure of gaining something equivalent.
When the action bias is strong enough to outweigh the influence of these opposing biases, it’s sometimes called the strong action bias.
Summary and conclusions
- The action bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to favor action over inaction, without properly considering the outcomes that this will bring.
- For example, the action bias can drive someone to make unnecessary changes to their investment portfolio, even if it would be better for them to do nothing.
- The action bias can occur due to a combination of unconscious potential causes, including that action may generally lead to better outcomes than inaction, that people value action more, that taking action by default may be more efficient, and that taking action may increase opportunities to learn and increase people’s sense of control.
- You can reduce the action bias using a combination of techniques, including outlining the negative consequences of action and positive consequences of inaction, comparing the pros/cons of action to each other and to the pros/cons of inaction, and framing inaction as an active choice.
- Remember that action is nevertheless often preferable to inaction, so accounting for this bias isn’t about avoiding action, but rather about assessing the situation properly when deciding what to do.