Less is More Despite Loss Aversion!
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In 1979, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, in creating their Prospect Theory, developed the important cognitive bias concept of loss aversion. It is summed up in the saying “losses loom larger than gains.” That is, people are more willing to take risks to avoid a loss than to make a gain. In fact, they may work twice as hard to avoid the loss than they would to acquire the gain. (Loss Aversion, behavioraleconomics.com)
This cognitive bias came to mind when I read an article in The Economist entitled “Why people forget that less is often more.”(April 17,2021 edition- Science and Technology section). Its thesis, based on recent research published in Nature, is that “when solving problems, people prefer adding things to getting rid of them.” (Id.) That is, “humans struggle with subtractive thinking”:
When asked to improve something-a Lego-brick structure, an essay, a golf course or a university- they tend to suggest adding new things rather than stripping back what is already there, even when additions lead to sub-par results. (Id.)
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