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Skin conductance responses in anticipation of gains and losses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Patrick Ring Open the ORCID record for Patrick Ring [Opens in a new window]  and
Ulrich Schmidt
Patrick Ring*
Affiliation:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany
Ulrich Schmidt
Affiliation:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Germany Department of Economics, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany Department of Economics and Econometrics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

It has been observed that, in a variety of tasks, losses have a larger impact on behavior than do gains of equal size. This phenomenon is referred to as loss aversion. It is thought that the negativity bias in behavior is reflected in and potentially causally related to a negativity bias in emotional arousal. We examine skin conductance responses—a psychophysiological marker for emotional arousal—during the anticipation of gains and losses. In contrast to most previous research, gains and losses were separated from each other and symmetric in magnitude. We found that skin conductance responses during the anticipation phase increased with the magnitude of both gains and losses. Contrary to the predictions of the loss aversion hypothesis, the anticipation of a loss did not elicit stronger reactions than the anticipation of a gain of equal size.

Keywords

Loss aversionSCRsGainsLossesAnticipation

JEL classification

D87: Neuroeconomics C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior D81: Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Type
Original Paper
Information
Journal of the Economic Science Association , Volume 5 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Choice-Process Data in Experimental Economics , August 2019 , pp. 38 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Economic Science Association 2019.

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40881-019-00067-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Patrick Ring and Ulrich Schmidt contributed equally to the research project.

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