gain and loss learning differentially contribute to life financial outcomes得失学习差异导致生活财务结果.pdfVIP

Gain and Loss Learning Differentially Contribute to Life Financial Outcomes 1 2 3 Brian Knutson *, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin , Camelia M. Kuhnen 1 Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America, 2 Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, 3 Finance Department, Kellogg School of Management, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America Abstract Emerging findings imply that distinct neurobehavioral systems process gains and losses. This study investigated whether individual differences in gain learning and loss learning might contribute to different life financial outcomes (i.e., assets versus debt). In a community sample of healthy adults (n = 75), rapid learners had smaller debt-to-asset ratios overall. More specific analyses, however, revealed that those who learned rapidly about gains had more assets, while those who learned rapidly about losses had less debt. These distinct associations remained strong even after controlling for potential cognitive (e.g., intelligence, memory, and risk preferences) and socioeconomic (e.g., age, sex, ethnicity, income, education) confounds. Self-reported measures of assets and debt were additionally validated with credit report data in a subset of subjects. These findings support the notion that different gain and loss learning systems may exert a cumulative influence on distinct life financial outcomes. Citation: Knutson B, Samanez-Larkin GR, Kuhnen CM (2011) Gain and Loss Learning Differentially Contribute to Life Financial Outcomes. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24390. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024390 Editor: Aldo Rustichini, University of Minnesota, United States of America Received April 15, 2011; Accepted August 9,