A close mentor once told me that I have a bias towards action and I recently have a deeper understanding and realization of the layers upon this phrase. Looking at this phrase from the perspective of economics and management - because she is an successfuly executive with background in economics, statistics, and management - there are research supporting that leaders/authorities tend to be action-biased when during crisis in contrast to relative peacetime (Bar-Eli et al., 2007). This made me more comfortable as a crisis leader (“The Psychology Behind Effective Crisis Leadership,” n.d.). I read the quote “hope is the consequence of action” from former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s Substack post on his decision to not run for public office and getting to work in a different way. Some further research and contemplatio led me to the conclusion of “when lack hope, act; when have hope, double down and act” inferring the similar mindset of being action biased and that acting is not binary but a sliding scale.
Feelings and motivation works the same way as hope. They often don’t come naturally, as those who are disciplined recognizes, but coms after the action. I would confess that I often lack the motivation to get into the car (or onto the bus) to go to the gym, but 10 min into my warmup my body remembers why I’m there.
In small steps, I have been applying this action-biased principle again in the recent economic, political, and democracy turmoil. Banded together with friends across the world in Europe and Asia, we decided to take action to rebuild hope. Specifically, I have chosen to take actions in the following two ways that align with my interest and values. First, leveraging my technical skills to support data rescue and decentralized data and cultural stewardship with Data Rescue Project and Safeguarding Research and Culture. Second, volunteering at a local young adult shelter to combat homelessness with the ROOTS Young Adult Shelter.
References
Bar-Eli, M., Azar, O. H., Ritov, I., Keidar-Levin, Y., & Schein, G. (2007). Action bias among elite soccer goalkeepers: The case of penalty kicks. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28(5), 606–621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2006.12.001
The Psychology Behind Effective Crisis Leadership. (n.d.). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved September 8, 2025, from [https://hbr.org/2020/04/the-psychology-behind-effective-crisis-leadership, https://hbr.org/2020/04/the-psychology-behind-effective-crisis-leadership](https://hbr.org/2020/04/the-psychology-behind-effective-crisis-leadership, https://hbr.org/2020/04/the-psychology-behind-effective-crisis-leadership)