Danny Kahnemann writes in his new book "Thinking Fast and Slow" that losses are weighted twice as much as gains, an that the loss-aversion coefficient in much higher in some situations.
Why are we wired like that? Obviously, because life is very uncertain and future gains are precarious. "Mas vale un pájaro en mano que cien volando" - better one bird in hand than one hundred in the sky.
When negotiating, people will tenaciously stick to what they have, valueing it twice more valuable than what they are being offered in exchange. When the exchange seems fair, that means that the good being offered is in fact valued half of its worth by the offerer. Something is suspiciously wrong.
2 comments:
Spanish speakers are 50x as risk adverse as English speakers - in English you say "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". The 2 to 1 ratio comports with the research.
K
Spanish people talk in lyrical metaphores, not in cold equations.
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