Why the Most Important Idea in Behavioral Decision-Making May Be a Fallacy

The popular idea that avoiding losses is a bigger motivator than achieving gains is not supported by the evidence.


Loss aversion, the idea that losses are more psychologically impactful than gains, is widely considered the most important idea of behavioral decision-making and its sister field of behavioral economics.

To depict the significance of loss aversion is accorded, Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics, wrote in his 2011 best-selling book, "Thinking Fast and Slow", that "the concept of loss aversion is certainly the most significant contribution of psychology to behavioral economics."
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