Action bias

Action bias is a phenomenon from psychology. In a given situation, when people have a choice of doing nothing, and doing something (called an action), they will prefer doing something over not doing anything. This is also the case when there is no guarantee that the action would give a better result. It is an automatic response, similar to a reflex or an impulse and is not based on rational thinking. One of the first appearances of the term "action bias" in scientific journals was in a 2000 paper by Patt and Zechenhauser titled "Action Bias and Environmental Decisions", where the authrs looked at the relevance in politics.