Systematic differences in the attitudes of men and women toward risk is well established and has been shown to contribute substantially to gender-specific outcomes within labour markets and goods markets. Despite these important implications, surprisingly little is known about the source of...

We are often preoccupied with the future, experiencing dread at the thought of future misery and savoring the thought of future pleasure. Prior lab studies have found that these anticipatory emotions influence decision-making. In this article, using a novel approach, we use economic survey data...

Optimism, the tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive events, is one of the most established psychological “biases”. So too are the apparently counteracting phenomena of loss and disappointment aversion. We propose an evolutionary based reconciliation of these seemingly...