Action Bias

Action bias is the tendency to prefer taking some action over doing nothing, even when careful analysis suggests that inaction would produce an equal or better outcome, because acting feels more consistent with a sense of control and responsibility than remaining passive. The effect was documented prominently in a study of professional soccer goalkeepers by the economists Michael Bar-Eli, Ofer Azar and colleagues, published in 2007, which found that goalkeepers facing a penalty kick dived to one side or the other far more often than they stayed in the center of the goal, even though staying in the center produced a statistically better chance of stopping the kick given the actual distribution of shots taken. The effect is discussed in decision-making research as related to regret aversion, since people often anticipate feeling greater regret over a passive failure to act than over an active choice that turns out badly, even when the outcomes are equivalent.