Comparative Psychology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Department of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018 Jan;43(2):334-341. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.75. Epub 2017 Apr 14.
Loss aversion is a well-known behavioral regularity in financial decision making, describing humans' tendency to overweigh losses compared to gains of the same amount. Recent research indicates that stress and associated hormonal changes affect loss aversion, yet the underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here, we investigated the causal influence of two major stress neuromodulators, cortisol and noradrenaline, on loss aversion during financial decision making. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled between-subject design, we orally administered either the α2-adrenergic antagonist yohimbine (increasing noradrenergic stimulation), hydrocortisone, both substances, or a placebo to healthy young men. We tested the treatments' influence on a financial decision-making task measuring loss aversion and risk attitude. We found that both drugs combined, relative to either drug by itself, reduced loss aversion in the absence of an effect on risk attitude or choice consistency. Our data suggest that concurrent glucocorticoid and noradrenergic activity prompts an alignment of reward- with loss-sensitivity, and thus diminishes loss aversion. Our results have implications for the understanding of the susceptibility to biases in decision making.
损失规避是金融决策中的一种众所周知的行为规律，描述了人类相对于同等收益而言对损失的过度重视倾向。最近的研究表明，压力和相关的激素变化会影响损失规避，但潜在的神经内分泌机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们研究了两种主要的应激神经调节剂——皮质醇和去甲肾上腺素对金融决策中损失规避的因果影响。在一项双盲、安慰剂对照的被试间设计中，我们给健康的年轻男性口服给予 α2-肾上腺素能拮抗剂育亨宾（增加去甲肾上腺素刺激）、氢化可的松、这两种物质或安慰剂。我们测试了这些治疗方法对衡量损失规避和风险态度的金融决策任务的影响。我们发现，与单独使用任何一种药物相比，这两种药物联合使用会降低损失规避，而对风险态度或选择一致性没有影响。我们的数据表明，皮质醇和去甲肾上腺素的同时活动促使奖励与损失敏感性一致，从而减少了损失规避。我们的结果对理解决策偏见的易感性具有重要意义。
