The tendency to say "no" to opportunities for trying new things.
People get stuck in established behaviors unless the incentive to change is compelling. This finding has been observed in many fields, including political science and economics. In the film Yes Man, Jim Carrey stars as Carl Allen, a man who signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything and anything new. Unleashing the power of “yes” transforms Carl’s life in amazing and unexpected ways.
Your brain will urge you to eat the same food, visit the same cafés, talk to the same people, obsess on the same thoughts, and tolerate the same injustices. Why is it so hard to accept change? Paradoxically, it is for the very reason that our brains usually work so well; we are designed to learn something and make it automatic. The problem is that when circumstances change, our “efficient” brains keep trying to do things the same old way. In her new book AdaptAbility, author Mary Jane Ryan presents powerful strategies to retrain your brain to allow change.
You can't do it twice until you've tried it once.
SEE ALSO: The System-Justification Bias
The tendency to defend and bolster the status quo.
Existing social, economic, and political arrangements tend to be preferred, and alternatives disparaged sometimes even at the expense of individual and collective self-interest.
