Forum
What is DR@W Forum?
DR@W Forum is an interdisciplinary discussion series which focuses on theoretical and empirical research about decision making.
The usual structure of the forum is a 30 - 45 minute introduction of the topic/working paper, with ample additional time for discussion.
The audience prefers discussing work-in-progress topics as opposed to finished papers. We meet on Thursdays between 2:30 and 3:45pm during term time. Contact John Taylor (John.Taylor[at]wbs.ac.uk) if you would like to suggest a speaker for a future event. Notifications of upcoming DR@W Forum events along with other decision research related activities can be obtained by registering with the moderated mailing list - email behaviour_spotlight at newlistserv dot warwick dot ac dot uk to be added to the list.
If you attend DR@W please take some time to fill in our survey It helps us understand who our audience are and how we can widen participation.
DR@W Forum: Johannes Müller-Trede (IESE, Barcelona)
Abstract: People are more likely to take risks when they involve losses rather than gains, and are reluctant to part with arbitrary endowments. Prospect theory explains these and related findings in terms of a deep asymmetry in how we value gains and losses. Based on two sets of experiments, we suggest an alternative psychological account. The first set of studies finds risk seeking only for losses quantified on standard numerical scales but not for losses quantified on other numerical scales or for qualitative losses of consumer goods. The second set of studies shows that effects usually attributed to loss aversion are mirrored in “no-loss paradigms,” including an endowment-like effect in the absence of any endowment. Our alternative account suggests that prospect theory’s value function may reflect the psychophysics of numerical cognition (and not a more general psychophysics of value), and that the endowment effect may be a response to value imprecision (not value asymmetry). It further suggests that psychological asymmetries between gains and losses may be less pronounced than previously thought, and raises questions about the generalizability of prospect theory’s behavioral predictions beyond standard paradigms.