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Inertia vs. the hassle factor

Much is made these days of the application of behavioral finance and the implications for plan design. But what about the hassle factor?

By Nevin Adams | Updated on June 03, 2014

Much is made these days of the application of behavioral finance and the implications for plan design, as well as the role of choice architecture in helping workers make “better” (if not more informed) benefit decisions.  Valuable as these insights have been, I think much of human behavior (or lack thereof) in these matters can be more simply explained.

What’s at work is a concept a friend of mine described to me more than 20 years ago – something he called “the hassle factor.” It was a philosophy he routinely applied in many aspects of his personal and professional life. Simply stated, presented with a choice between doing something that is hard, time-consuming, complicated, or even inconvenient, and doing something else, my friend – and, in fairness, human beings generally seem to be – inclined to opt for the latter.

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