Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · chapter 7 · id influence-c7-03-loss-aversion----peoples-tende

“Loss aversion -- people's tendency to want to avoid losing things more than they want to gain equivalent things -- is a key psychological mechanism behind the scarcity principle.”

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Receipts

Kahneman & Tversky (1979), Prospect Theory, Econometrica 47(2)DOI registry: valid

The value function is steeper for losses than for gains, with a loss aversion coefficient of approximately 2.25 (losses loom roughly 2.25 times larger than equivalent gains).

Gal & Rucker (2018), The Loss of Loss Aversion, Journal of Economic Perspectives 32(3)FLAGGED: DOI not in registry

The evidence for loss aversion as a general principle is weaker than commonly assumed. Many domains show no loss aversion, and the phenomenon may be limited to specific contexts rather than being a universal cognitive bias.

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