Why do we stick with what we have, even when something better is on offer?

We stick with what we have partly because we treat it as the starting line. The current situation becomes our reference point, and every change away from it is scored as a gain or a loss. Since potential losses weigh more heavily on us than equal gains, switching tends to feel like a bad deal even when it isn't. Psychologists call this status quo bias.

A study of California electricity customers shows how strong it is. One group had very reliable power, the other much less reliable power but lower rates. Both were offered the same six combinations of reliability and price. In the reliable group, 60.2 percent chose exactly what they already had, and only 5.7 percent wanted the cheaper, flakier plan. In the other group, 58.3 percent chose their own cheaper, flakier plan, and only 5.8 percent wanted the reliable one. Same menu, opposite choices: each group mostly picked home.

Losses aren't the whole story. When people chose the colour of a new car, they leaned towards a colour that had simply been labelled the current one, though nothing was at stake. We also regret a change that goes wrong more than a non-change that goes wrong, and we tend to assume, with little thought, that whatever exists is good. Sticking can be sensible when the current option really is better, but often it is just the path of least regret.