Association of Loss Aversion, Personality Traits, Depressive, Anxious, and Suicidal Symptoms: Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE: Loss aversion is defined as the individual perception of losses with a more significant impact than the gains of the same proportion, where people would be more sensitive to the possibility of losing objects or money than to the possibility of winning, even the same quantities. However, studies relating to loss aversion and psychological factors are still incipient. The aim of the present literature review was to identify and analyze the results of studies that investigated loss aversion regarding personality traits and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. METHOD: A systematic review was done through PUBMED and Scopus databases. Descriptors were defined according to each database specificities. RESULTS: At first, 103 articles were encountered. After evaluation of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, there were a total of 14 remaining articles that were group together into six categories related to loss aversion, depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and personality. CONCLUSIONS: The present study contributes to the literature mapping in the Behavioural Economics field. However, discrepancies were found among the studies, which made it difficult to acquire more conclusive findings.