The same old thinking, the same old results?

This paper investigated the status quo bias. The status quo bias happens when individual decision makers attach an extra value in their default or status quo option in sequential decision-making. This paper focussed on the presence of the status quo bias in economic decision-making and looked at the influence of personal characteristics, like being an adolescent or young adult, a “high” versus “low” confident individual, and a “high” versus “low” risk-seeking individual. According to the results of this paper, the presence of the status quo bias does depend on if someone has a “high” or “low” confidence level. On the other hand, being an adolescent or a young adult, or having different levels of risk-seeking behaviour does not significantly influence the presence of a status quo bias in economic decision-making. Still, a few tests showed that adolescents were less influenced by the status quo bias compared to young adults. Therefore, it could be the case that the main factors influencing the presence of the status quo bias, come into play when someone becomes an adult. Although behavioural biases have been investigated in many different areas, adolescents have been overlooked. Learning more about the presence and reasons behind possible “bad” biases influencing adolescents, could be very helpful. Knowing what kind of biases play a role influencing adolescents can help, to better educate a new generation of managers, who are less likely to fall for “bad” biases.