I think like most generalizations, "studies show" is making this seem like a much more pervasive bias than it is. I definitely buy that the majority of people t

I think like most generalizations, "studies show" is making this seem like a much more pervasive bias than it is. I definitely buy that the majority of people tend to go with defaults more often than not, because were that not the case, the notion of a "default" would hardly even be well-formed. But it's clear that it's also not that uncommon to have the opposite bias, as demonstrated by how often one hears the advice "don't reinvent the wheel" and how apt and wise that advice is for some people I definitely find myself in that position. I have a strong resistance to uncritically making decisions based on the default that is presented to me, and while I do view this as a valuable part of my mindset in many circumstances, it also is quite often the wrong call in retrospect, whether it's absorbing too much risk, accepting too much decision fatigue over insignificant choices, or even choosing suboptimally just to make a point I think a lot of people could benefit from trying to make more choices, but I've very seldom met advice whose opposite wasn't appropriate for someone, and even less often met advice that's wise for everyone in every circumstance Too often, studies that find that e.g. 67% of their participants behave a certain way - often in fairly constructed conditions - create a false sense of consensus and homogeneity, even among fairly smart consumers of such information, when reported this way