Hereâs how each essentially functions:
- The emotion default: we tend to respond to feelings rather than reasons and fact.
- The ego default: we tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy.
- The social default: we tend to conform to the norms of our larger social group.
- The inertia default: weâre habit forming and comfort seeking. We tend to resist change, and prefer ideas, processes, and environments that are familiar.
There are no hard edges between defaults; they often bleed into one another. Each on their own is enough to cause unforced errors, but when they act together things quickly go from bad to worse.