{
  "title": "Renewing an existing choice: what the default alone cannot justify",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/options-par-defaut-ce-que-reconduire-ne-signifie-pas-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-07-04",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Keeping an existing arrangement can be reasonable. But its advantages need to be distinguished from the influence of its status as the default option.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Decision-making",
  "place": {
    "name": "Fribourg",
    "region": "Fribourg",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser (1988, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty) show, notably in choice experiments, that an option benefits from being presented as the existing situation."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A default can be read as a recommendation",
      "point": "Craig R."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that defaults should be removed or that change should always be required."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What observed decisions cannot tell us",
      "point": "A high renewal rate alone cannot distinguish between satisfaction, switching costs, a perceived recommendation and inertia."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Fribourg",
      "point": "Within SHR's « Prise de décision » programme, one exercise would be to track a category of non-critical renewals for a month: auxiliary services in the agri-food sector, maintenance contracts in bilingual industry or information-resource subscriptions in Fribourg's university sector."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Zeckhauser",
      "year": "1988",
      "source": "Journal of Risk and Uncertainty"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Finkelstein",
      "year": "2006",
      "source": "Psychological Science"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 397,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-07-04-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/options-par-defaut-ce-que-reconduire-ne-signifie-pas",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/options-par-defaut-ce-que-reconduire-ne-signifie-pas-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/options-par-defaut-ce-que-reconduire-ne-signifie-pas-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/options-par-defaut-ce-que-reconduire-ne-signifie-pas-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/prise-de-decision/fribourg",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/fribourg",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}