Status Quo Bias

Easter 3, Year C

April 14, 2013
 

I read an article recently about something called Status Quo Bias.*  Status Quo Bias is defined as “an inappropriate (irrational) preference for an option because it preserves the status quo.”  In other words, people tend to prefer things to stay relatively the same, even if the alternative is something objectively better/more interesting/more beneficial to society.  The article talked about the effect this bias has on everything from how we choose insurance plans to how we invest our money to how we elect public officials.  I’m betting this bias also affects where we choose to live, where we go to church, the jobs we are in, who we choose to marry, how we raise our children, whether or how we pray.  In fact, the researchers who wrote the article argued that Status Quo Bias is responsible for most opposition to human advancement.

            I didn’t know it had a name, but I’ve definitely observed it in others and experienced it in myself.  More often than not, it feels more comfortable to remain in the safety of what is known than to take risks, try new things, consider new ideas, visit new places, get to know new people.  We tend to want to stay with what we know, with what is familiar.  And I’m guessing it’s especially true when something scares or confuses us.

And today we learn that we are not alone – the disciples are right there with us in our status quo bias.

            In our Gospel story, we come across seven of the disciples back where they started, by the sea in Galilee.  They’ve seen the empty tomb and met the risen Jesus once or twice already in last week’s Doubting Thomas story, but it seems like they still don’t get it. They aren’t out on the road teaching. They aren’t in the synagogues preaching. They aren’t healing the sick or helping the widows and orphans. They are out on the lake fishing. Before they’d met Jesus, the majority of the disciples had been fisherfolk on this same sea, so here they are again returning to their same old lives. Back where they feel most comfortable. Most sure of themselves. Maybe back to the only thing they know how to do without Jesus. After the confusion and fear and uncertainty of the last few weeks, it was probably a huge relief to get back to their old routine. Back to the familiar, the status quo.

            I wonder what the status quo might be in your life? Take a couple minutes and think about whether there might be a place in your life where you’ve gotten stuck, holding on a little too tight to the familiar.

            Here comes Jesus.  He had interrupted their routine before with his invitation to follow him and here he comes to do it again.  Suddenly a stranger calls out to them and tells them to throw their net out on the other side of the boat. 

            And even after all they’ve been through together with Jesus – the traveling, the meals, the miracles, the denials, the commissioning…. Even after several incredible meetings with the risen Jesus…. Even then, they still don’t recognize Jesus right away.

            Somehow it makes me feel better that those seven disciples who had walked so closely with Jesus and knew him better than just about anyone didn’t know Jesus when they saw him. Somehow it helps to know that even these seven who had seen Jesus arrested and killed and then experienced the miracle of Jesus as risen forgot to look for Jesus.

            Because that’s right where I am on all but the best of days. That’s where all of us are, I imagine. We get busy and stuck in our routines and we forget to look for Jesus present in our lives in all the different forms he takes.

            I wonder where Jesus might be right now in your life inviting you to live your same old life in a wonderfully new way?

 

* Samuelson, William and Richard Zeckhauser.  Status Quo Bias in Decision Making, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1:7-59 (1988).