Grist: How plan continuation bias might affect character decisions

Join us at 7pm GMT on Thursday 8 February for the next Grist conversation.

The Torrey Canyon disaster. Photo: Peter Nigel-Jones

Hi there, 

As I was writing my last Why Aren’t I Writing? post about the need to spend time properly observing how people interact, I was reminded of plan continuation bias, or the tendency to continue with a plan even after a change of circumstances. 

I first learnt about plan continuation bias via an episode of Tim Harford’s Cautionary Tales podcast, in which he told the story of the Torrey Canyon. 

Torrey Canyon was one of the biggest and best ships in the world – nevertheless its captain and crew needlessly steered it towards a deadly reef known as The Seven Stones. This risky manoeuvre seems like utter madness, but the thinking behind it is something we are all prone to do when we fixate on a goal and a plan to get us there.

Ironically, my husband and I were listening to this podcast, and one about scarcity traps, as we were driving all our worldly possessions and two cats from Sheboygan, Wisconsin to Shaker Heights, Ohio. We managed to both fall into a scarcity trap and suffer plan continuation bias in a frankly spectacular fashion, even though we had just spent hours learning and talking about them. 

The next Grist session will be held at 19:00 GMT on Thursday 8 February, and I will tell you that utterly horrendous story in all its gory detail. We can also discuss other examples of plan continuation bias and how that might affect your characters’ decision-making processes. 

Grist sessions are for paying subscribers, but you can access this session by either starting a free trial or by unlocking this post in the Substack app.