Pro-innovation bias
Pro-innovation bias is the belief that a new technology or idea should be adopted widely, without its limits or downsides being examined. Supporters overvalue its usefulness and undervalue its problems.
This idea comes from sociologist Everett Rogers's critique of research on how innovations spread, not from experiments, so there is little direct evidence on how strong or common it is.
In everyday life
A school buys tablets for every student before checking whether they improve learning or mainly create distractions.
You are so excited about a new smart lock that you install it on every door of your house, never considering what happens if the battery dies or the app goes down.
Why your mind does this
Imagining the past and the future is hard, so the brain uses the present as a template. Assuming things will stay roughly as they are now is a quick and usually workable guide. Making sense of events after the fact also helps us learn lessons and feel in control.
Its family, in 30 seconds: Projecting ourselves
How to spot it
Ask what the downsides, costs and failure points of this new thing are, and who has tested them.
How to counter it
Try the new idea on a small scale and measure the results before rolling it out everywhere.
Same family: Projecting ourselves
SourcesWikipedia·Abrahamson (1991)