ABSTRACT—Loss aversion occurs because people expect losses to have greater hedonic impact than gains of equal magnitude. In two studies, people predicted that losses in a gambling task would have greater hedonic impact than would gains of equal magnitude, but when people actually gambled, losses did not have as much of an emotional im- pact as they predicted. People overestimated the hedonic impact of losses because they underestimated their ten- dency to rationalize losses and overestimated their ten- dency to dwell on losses. The asymmetrical impact of losses and gains was thus more a property of affective forecasts than a property of affective experience.Loss Aversion Is an Affective Forecasting Error
Deborah A. Kermer, Erin Driver-Linn, Timothy D. Wilson and Daniel T. Gilbert Psychological Science 2006 17: 649
Some studies have concluded that we are three times more motivated to avoid a loss than we are to make a gain.
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