Gemma Spake

The people who had 10 tokens taken away suggested they had lost almost 15% more than they actually had.

Whereas those who had gained extras usually estimated it more accurately.

They usually were like, yeah, around 10%.

around around five percent around ten percent whatever it was these people weren't just bad at math right what it's really showing is that our brains focus expand skew our perception of what we have to lose this means that when we encounter situations of uncertainty and change even good change

Our anticipation for what may go wrong will often be so much greater than our excitement for the possibility of what will go right.

This contributes to what we know as the status quo bias.

Basically, we'd rather stick with how things are, even if they're not amazing, because change feels too risky and too much of a burden.

There's actually quite a famous paper from the 80s that explores this.

It was published in the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty and essentially in a series of these decision-making experiments where participants were given a default option.

They disproportionately stuck with that option, even when the alternatives were objectively better.

They could win $20.

They could win prizes.

They could also lose $10, but they actually went for neither of those things.

They didn't want to win $20.

They didn't want to lose $10.

They just did nothing.

They stuck with what they had.

Now, if we apply this pattern of behavior to our actual lives,

Think about it.

You might be in a job that's all right.