Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Combining Behavioral Endocrinology and Experimental Economics: Testosterone and Social Decision Making
Published on: March 2, 2011
Loss Aversion and Health Behaviors: Results from Two Incentivized Economic Experiments
1East Asia International College, Yonsei University, Wonju 26493, Korea.
Abstract:
Experimental research in health economics has analyzed the effects of economic preference parameters such as risk attitude and time preference on the probability of adopting risky health behaviors. However, the existing evidence is mixed and previous research often fails to include controls for other determinants of health behaviors such as personality traits. The aim of this research is to analyze the relationships between an incentivized measure of loss aversion and three health behaviors: smoking, binge drinking, and engaging in physical activity. Loss aversion is a preference measure that has been derived from prospect theory as an alternative approach to analyze decision-making under risk, such as the decision to invest in health capital, and has never been used in an analysis of the determinants of health behaviors before. Using two experimental samples of college students in the Republic of Korea and the United States of America, and controlling for Big Five personality traits and a host of individual-level control variables, there are no statistically significant relationships between loss aversion and the three aforementioned health behaviors, but relationships for Big Five conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. A candidate explanation might be lack of domain independence for loss aversion. Differences between the Korean and the US samples indicate the possibility of intercultural differences.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Framing Effects
Egoism and Altruism
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
Incentive Theory: Pull Theory of Motivation
The theory differentiates between intrinsic and...

