Behaviouronomics: Do Something Bias

Always being in the thick of action can be dangerous to your long term investment returns. The habit is difficult to overcome, but you must definitely make a start. Read more to find out.

Have you noticed that there are some people who are so restless that they find it impossible to sit at one place quietly? They have very short attention span and can’t stay with one activity for long. In medical science this abnormality is known as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

Now before you brush aside ADHD as something which isn’t relevant to you, allow me to hold your attention for one more second. Here is an interesting fact – Evolution has installed the seeds of ADHD in every human brain.

Some people have very severe symptoms of ADHD and they may need medical treatment. But for the rest of us this disorder manifests very subtly in our day to day decision making.

Famous scientist Blaise Pascal figured something very deep when he said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

In an attempt to be efficient and productive, we force ourselves to always stay busy with some task or other. But sometimes too much activity is counterproductive. In behavioural finance, it’s called Do-Something Bias.

A wise man once said, “There is no bigger waste of time than doing something efficiently which shouldn’t be done at the first place.”

Do-something bias is not only wasteful but can harm you in the long term.

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