What kind of person are you? When you get a new gadget, a new iPhone, a Flip, a vacuum cleaner… do you:
1) Use it as is, never touch the defaults
2) Use it for a while, eventually change it up a little here and there
3) Rip it apart, figure out how it ticks, change every setting until it does what you want and how you want it
Many people I know, including myself, fall into category #3. We are rarely satisfied with things as they are presented to us. However author and economist Dan Ariely found some interesting results about predictable irrationality (ted talk, book).
Dan Ariely found that an overwhelming majority of us tend to pick the default values presented to us in life, yet none of us want to admit it. For example, he found when the question on the DMV form was worded “Check the box below if you want to participate in the organ donor program”, a very small percent of people opted in. When the question on the DMV form was worded “Check the box below if you do not want to participate in the organ donor program”, the majority of the people opted in.
The percent of people who would ever admit that the wording on the form influenced their decision: 0%.
These findings are very interesting, and if you are a category #3 person you might be saying: well that would never happen to me. Before you jump to any conclusions, remember that nobody in their right mind would feel like the default value influenced their choice. Everyone thinks they have their opinions about things and that their opinions guide all their choices… we all feel like rational beings.
As rational as we are, sometimes things fall through the cracks. We all occasionally accept things simply because that is how they were given to us. Most of the time, accepting the default values in life saves us time and is perfectly adequate. Explicitly examining every choice we make daily would be completely exhausting.
But sometimes the defaults are not ideal. Sometimes the things we accept in life creep up on us like a camel’s nose, maybe things were ok at first but got out of hand. Can you think of any choices in your life like that?
