- Brand loyalty: in 73% of cases, households return to the same service station brand when refuelling their vehicles. Among those who switch to a different brand, 56.5% eventually return to their original choice.1
- Automatic renewals: 53-75% of subscribers don’t cancel their subscription after the promotional trial period and continue to pay without using them.2
- Employee savings: In France, most employees rarely rebalance their portfolios.3
- In 2024, 65% of employees made no changes to their investment portfolios.
- Women, younger individuals, and those with lower incomes are the least likely to review their retirement savings plans...
What is the status quo bias?
It's the tendency to stick with your current situation, even if better options exist.
This bias can be explained by:
- Loss aversion: the fear of losing what you have is often stronger than the desire to gain something new.
- Cognitive effort: any change demands time, careful thought, and sometimes actions that are perceived as requiring too much effort.
Concrete examples of the status quo bias
Concrete examples of the status quo bias
Doing nothing can be very expensive!
Doing nothing can be very expensive!
Did you know? Studies conducted in Europe estimate that 85 to 87% of households never renegotiate their mortgage or do so too late.
Result:
Significant financial losses, of up to 15% of the loan value, or €1,500 a year! 4,5
It’s time for action!
Shake up your financial habits.
Ask yourself this question:
"Which of the following financial decisions have I reviewed since I made them?"
- My retirement investment strategy
- My current loans
- My emergency savings
- My insurance policies (home, car, etc.)
- My recurring subscriptions (streaming platforms, gym, apps, etc.)
If you haven’t ticked the boxes, it's time to do something about it and challenge your automatic responses. Be sure to repeat this task and ask yourself these questions every 3 months!
Download the Infographic
The other chapters of the series are coming very soon!
Reason in action
A 6 part series on behavioural biases - those mental habits that unconsciously influence our decisions.
The fear factor: loss aversion in investing
"Losses weigh more heavily than gains."
Daniel Kahneman, 2022 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
The fear factor: loss aversion in investing
"Losses weigh more heavily than gains."
Daniel Kahneman, 2022 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
Illustrations: Cléo Wehrlin
1 MacKay, Alexander, and Marc Remer (2024) Consumer inertia and market power
2 Miller, Klaus M., Navdeep S. Sahni, and Avner Strulov-Shlain (2023) Sophisticated consumers with inertia: Long-term implications from a large-scale field experiment
3 Calculated by the authors based on data relating to the activities of French employees' employee savings accounts in 2024.
4 Bajo and Barbi (2018) Financial illiteracy and mortgage refinancing decisions
5 Andersen et al. (2020) Sources of inaction in household finance: Evidence from the Danish mortgage market
Unless otherwise stated, all information contained in this document is from Amundi Asset Management S.A.S. and is as of 10 November 2025. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss. The views expressed regarding market and economic trends are those of the author and not necessarily Amundi Asset Management S.A.S. and are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance that countries, markets or sectors will perform as expected. These views should not be relied upon as investment advice, a security recommendation, or as an indication of trading for any Amundi product. This material does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, fund units or services. Investment involves risks, including market, political, liquidity and currency risks. Past performance is not a guarantee or indicative of future results.
Date of first use: 10 November 2025
Doc ID: 4851412
Marketing Communication