The making of Homo Honoratus: From omission to commission

Abstract

This study investigates how people's tendency to avoid action, known as “omission bias,” influences their financial decisions, specifically in the context of debt repayment to the UK government. Using a randomized controlled trial, we communicated with individuals who owed money, employing two distinct message framings. The omission-framed message suggested that nonresponse was seen as inadvertent, while the commission-framed message treated nonresponse as a deliberate choice. Analyses of nearly 40,000 responses revealed that repayment rates almost doubled with commission framing, reaching 23.2%, as opposed to 12% under omission framing. This reframing strategy generated over $1.4 million in additional revenue, underscoring the considerable real-world impact of understanding and leveraging the omission bias in shaping financial behaviors.