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Drosophila Passive Avoidance Behavior as a New Paradigm to Study Associative Aversive Learning

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Sudden-death aversion: Avoiding superior options because they feel riskier.

Jesse Walker¹, Jane L Risen², Thomas Gilovich¹

¹Department of Psychology, Cornell University.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

|January 17, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Decision-makers often avoid high-reward "fast" strategies for safer "slow" ones, a phenomenon called sudden-death aversion (SDA). This tendency, driven by loss aversion and fear of tempting fate, can incur significant costs.

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Area of Science:

Decision Science
Behavioral Economics
Psychology

Background:

Individuals often face choices between strategies with high potential reward but also high risk, versus strategies with lower reward but greater safety.
Sudden-death aversion (SDA) describes the tendency to avoid high-risk, high-reward options in favor of safer, lower-reward alternatives.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide evidence for sudden-death aversion (SDA) across various domains.
To explore the psychological mechanisms underlying SDA, specifically myopic loss aversion and concerns about 'tempting fate'.

Main Methods:

Archival analysis of NFL and NBA game strategies.
Controlled experiments involving military scenarios and decision-making tasks.
Examination of how framing and necessity influence risk perception.

Main Results:

Evidence of SDA was found in sports (NFL, NBA) and military contexts.
SDA is partly driven by myopic loss aversion, where immediate losses are overweighted.
Concerns about 'tempting fate' and differential expectations of blame contribute to SDA.

Conclusions:

Sudden-death aversion is a prevalent bias influencing decisions in diverse fields.
Understanding the mechanisms of SDA is crucial for improving strategic decision-making.
SDA can lead to suboptimal outcomes due to risk-averse choices and fear of negative consequences.