When bad things happen like wars, recessions, plagues and pestilence people get understandably nervous. And when people are nervous they tend to become more risk averse.

People (and businesses) tend to fall back on what they know and trust, they are less experimental, infact more closed-minded generally.

Recessions have a double impact because we all have less money and less appetite for risk. So nostalgia and the staus quo generally dominate, people are less likely to move house, less likely to experiment with the new and more likely to look for brands that they trust and have been around for a while. Businesses meanwhile tend to fall back on the things that they know work avoiding risky innovation and experiment.

So if the recession is coming to an end then hopefully the appetite for risk should come back: braver creative work and more experimental with media.

Maybe 2010 will be the year that we can all open our minds again and start thinking about the future rather than the past.