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In other words, the pain from a loss far outweighs the pleasures from an equivalent gain.

In non human subjects

Chen, Laksminaryanan and Santos (2006) conducted experiments on capuchin monkeys to determine whether behavioral biases extend across species. In one of their experiments, subjects were presented with two choices that both delivered a payoff of one apple piece in exchange of their coins.

Experimenter 1 displayed one apple piece and gave that exact amount. Experimenter 2 displayed two apple pieces initially but always removed one piece before delivering the remaining apple piece to the subject. Therefore, identical payoffs are yielded regardless of which experimenter the subject traded with.

It was found that subjects strongly preferred the experimenter who initially displayed only one apple piece, even though both experimenters yielded the same outcome of one apple piece.This study suggests that capuchins weighted losses more heavily than equivalent gains.

Chen, M., Lakshminarayanan, V., & Santos, L. (2006). How Basic Are Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 114(3), 517-537. doi:10.1086/503550