TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Psychological mechanisms of loss aversion: a drift-diffusion decomposition
JO  - Cognitive psychology
A1  - Zhao, Wenjia Joyce
A1  - Walasek, Lukasz
A1  - Bhatia, Sudeep
SP  - e101331
EP  - e101331
VL  - 123
IS  - 
N2  - Decision makers often reject mixed gambles offering equal probabilities of a larger gain and a smaller loss. This important phenomenon, referred to as loss aversion, is typically explained by prospect theory, which proposes that decision makers give losses higher utility weights than gains. In this paper we consider alternative psychological mechanisms capable of explaining loss aversion, such as a fixed utility bias favoring rejection, as well as a bias favoring rejection prior to gamble valuation. We use a drift diffusion model of decision making to conceptually distinguish, formally define, and empirically measure these mechanisms. In two preregistered experiments, we show that the pre-valuation bias provides a very large contribution to model fits, predicts key response time patterns, reflects prior expectations regarding gamble desirability, and can be manipulated independently of the valuation process. Our results indicate that loss aversion is the result of multiple different psychological mechanisms, and that the pre-valuation bias is a fundamental determinant of this well-known behavioral tendency. These results have important implications for how we model behavior in risky choice tasks, and how we interpret its relationship with various psychological, clinical, and neurobiological variables.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0010-0285
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2020.101331
ID  - ref1
ER  -