Reexamination of the “uneven route” account of loss aversion

Abstract

The "uneven route" accountpredicts how and why loss aversion appears in human behavior. The account assumes that loss aversion occurs when the routes (the number of transitions of the same possession) for losses are greater than those for gains. The present study manipulated the uneven route account and then reexamined the account by using more harsh and unfavorable experimental conditions. Results of four experiments and a mini meta-analysis consistently showed that the modal choice supporting the uneven route account was robust to variations in the experimental design to the magnitude of payoffs and to the index of measuring loss aversion.That is, loss aversion disappeared in the tax refund versus tax paid scenario compared with the win money versus lose money scenario. These results are expected to enrich the underlying mechanism of loss aversion and attract the interest of fellow researchers to conduct further research to see which account can better explain the loss aversion.