Loss Aversion: Why Losing Money Hurts More
Chapter 1

The bliss of what we never knew

Chapter 2

The leap of faith

Chapter 3

The sting of the empty space

Chapter 4

The trap of comparison

YOUR GOAL

Master of The grass is always greener and other brain lies

Ch 3 · The sting of the empty space
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007skaty The human brain naturally falls into the trap of loss aversion.

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007skaty The Invisible Hand Illusion

Lead: When they stab the empty space Response: (Oh, you feel the panic there)

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We measure the value of what we have by the pain of its absence.

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007skaty Richard Thaler designed an experiment to test the psychology of ownership.

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The endowment effect experiment

007skaty Half of the study participants received coffee mugs, triggering the endowment effect as their brains quickly bonded with

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The hedonic treadmill effect

007skaty A modern luxury car sits parked inside a garage under dramatic warm spotlighting.

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Now You See It
BETA

007skaty Compare two different scenes to discover why we only appreciate things once they are gone.

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Fun Fact

Loss aversion: Neuroimaging shows that losing money activates the amygdala, the brain's fear center, far more intensely than winning the same amount activates reward centers.

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Glossary
absence (noun)
The state of being away from a place or companion. Ben Tennyson confronts this silent reality when Jimmy Jones leaves Earth to assist Azmuth.

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Gossip

Which lost item causes you the most panic?

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Quiz

What happens to a person's baseline happiness over time after experiencing a major positive change?

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007skaty The psychology behind the hedonic treadmill effect

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Quiz

What economic and psychological theory describes how humans evaluate losses and gains asymmetrically?

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007skaty The status quo bias explains our tendency to keep things the same.

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Quiz

What specific everyday object was used in Richard Thaler's famous 1990 experiment on the endowment effect?

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Quiz

According to prospect theory, how much stronger is the psychological pain of losing compared to gaining?

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Quiz

Which researchers coined the term 'hedonic treadmill' in 1971 to describe human adaptation to luxury?

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Quiz

What is the term for valuing an item more highly simply because you already own it?

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Quiz

Which economists first identified and named the status quo bias in 1988?

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Quiz

Which Nobel Prize-winning psychologist is famous for co-developing prospect theory and studying loss aversion?

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