Ommission Bias

A vaccine will harm a tiny number of the children who receive it, and save a vastly larger number from the disease. Some parents refuse it — choosing the larger risk of inaction over the smaller risk of action. Because harm I cause feels worse than harm I merely allow.

This is omission bias: sins of commission weigh heavier on the conscience than identical sins of omission. The pushed man is murder; the unrescued drowning man is tragedy. The outcome is the same body in the water; only our fingerprints differ.

The bias once kept us careful — the active hand is more dangerous than the still one. But in a world of vaccines, investments, and policies, it systematically chooses the worse outcome whenever the worse outcome arrives by doing nothing.

So audit your defaults with the same standards as your actions. Not vaccinating, not saving, not repairing, not apologizing — each is a choice with consequences you own. The water does not care whether the drowning was caused or permitted. Neither should your conscience.