Gosling's Grouse: Unhappy returns

GOSLING'S GROUSE

Psychologists have long known we are more likely to react to a perceived risk than a perceived good.

This aversion to risk does not just manifest itself when we are in fear for our lives, it comes in many other facets of life, from seeing what we think is a scary face, to being confronted with a scene with which we are not familiar. Our perception of a gain or a loss is affected by a number of factors – the original amount invested, the time period, what an investor expected to make from the investment, or what they might have made from an alternative investment. It was almost a national sport five years ago to play ‘what I would have made from a house in such and such an area’ as ho...