The innovation bias: Implicit preferences for innovative and historical solutions over contemporary ones

Innovative solutions promise to improve our lives. Novel, unfamiliar approaches, however, also come with increased uncertainty regarding their feasibility and quality. In four preregistered experiments (N = 272 adults), we investigated implicit biases toward such innovative approaches. We tracked hand movements while participants chose between options of different levels of innovativeness. Choices either compared historic versus contemporary options (past comparison; e.g., carriage vs. car) or they compared contemporary versus innovative options (future comparison; e.g., car vs. self-driving car). While for past comparisons, movement trajectories were systematically torn toward the more historic option, the opposite effect was observed for future comparisons. This pattern of results replicated across all four studies. People, thus, seem to implicitly favor innovative and historic approaches over established ones. We conclude that moderate incongruity from an established approach, either through innovation or through a return to the past, evokes particular interest and attraction toward non-standard alternatives.