Editing Status quo bias (section)

===Rational routes to status quo maintenance===

A status quo bias can also be a rational route if there are cognitive or informational limitations.

;Informational limitations
Decision outcomes are rarely certain, nor is the utility they may bring. Because some errors are more costly than others (Haselton & Nettle, 2006),<ref name="HaseltonNettle2006">{{cite journal|last1=Haselton|first1=Martie G.|last2=Nettle|first2=Daniel|title=The Paranoid Optimist: An Integrative Evolutionary Model of Cognitive Biases|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review|volume=10|issue=1|year=2006|pages=47–66|doi=10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_3|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/papers/downloads/PSPR2006.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109184121/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/papers/downloads/PSPR2006.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 9, 2014|pmid=16430328|citeseerx=10.1.1.322.3420|s2cid=5725102}}</ref> sticking with what worked in the past is a safe option, as long as previous decisions are "good enough".<ref name=simon>{{cite journal|last=Simon|first=H.A.|title=Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment|journal=Psychological Review|date=March 1956|volume=63|issue=2|pages=129–138|doi=10.1037/h0042769|pmid=13310708|citeseerx=10.1.1.545.5116|s2cid=8503301 }}</ref>

;Cognitive limitations
Cognitive limitations of status quo bias involve the cognitive cost of choice, in which decisions are more susceptible to postponement as increased alternatives are added to the choice set. Moreover, mental effort needed to maintain status quo alternatives would often be lesser and easier, resulting in a superior choice's benefit being outweighed by decision-making cognitive costs. Consequently, maintenance of current or previous state of affairs would be regarded as the easier alternative.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Eidelman |first1=Scott |last2=Crandall |first2=Christian S. |date=2 March 2012 |title=Bias in Favor of the Status Quo: Bias and the Status Quo |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00427.x |journal=Social and Personality Psychology Compass |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=270–281 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00427.x|url-access=subscription }}</ref>