Concept · Cognitive Bias: Decision-making and judgment biases
Action bias
Origin: Patt & Zeckhauser, 2000
Biological Parallel
Soccer goalkeepers dive left or right on 94% of penalty kicks, despite staying center being optimal. Action feels like agency. For ancestral humans, doing something—gathering, hunting, building—improved survival odds more than waiting. Predator approaching? Act. Food scarce? Forage. Action bias reflects an environment where initiative usually beat passivity. The goalkeeper dives because millions of years encoded 'doing something beats doing nothing,' even when statistics say otherwise.