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Abstract
Loss aversion (LA), the idea that negative valuations have a higher psychological impact than positive ones, is considered an important variable in consumer research. The literature on aging and behavior suggests older individuals may show more LA, although it is not clear if this is an effect of aging in general (as in the continuum from age 20 and 50 years), or of the state of older age (e.g., past age 65 years). We also have not yet identified the potential biological effects of aging on the neural processing of LA. In the current study we used a cohort of subjects with a 30 year range of ages, and performed whole brain functional MRI (fMRI) to examine the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (VS/NAc) response during a passive viewing of affective faces with model-based fMRI analysis incorporating behavioral data from a validated approach/avoidance task with the same stimuli. Our a priori focus on the VS/NAc was based on (1) the VS/NAc being a central region for reward/aversion processing; (2) its activation to both positive and negative stimuli; (3) its reported involvement with tracking LA. LA from approach/avoidance to affective faces showed excellent fidelity to published measures of LA. Imaging results were then compared to the behavioral measure of LA using the same affective faces. Although there was no relationship between age and LA, we observed increasing neural differential sensitivity (NDS) of the VS/NAc to avoidance responses (negative valuations) relative to approach responses (positive valuations) with increasing age. These findings suggest that a central region for reward/aversion processing changes with age, and may require more activation to produce the same LA behavior as in younger individuals, consistent with the idea of neural efficiency observed with high IQ individuals showing less brain activation to complete the same task.
Highlights
Age is among the most commonly used variables in marketing and consumer research
We found that activation to negative stimuli in left and right NAc was significantly greater than activation to positive stimuli (Figure 5)
The absence of Loss aversion (LA) correlation with age, but presence of age correlation with brain differential sensitivity (i.e., neural differential sensitivity (NDS)) supports a neural efficiency or neurocompensation hypothesis regarding the effects of age on the process of LA
Summary
Age is among the most commonly used variables in marketing and consumer research. While age is a deceptively simple variable, the underlying construct of biological age and how it relates to behavior is not always clear. Aging research points to an association of age with making less risky decisions (Johnson and Busemeyer, 2010), and suggests that older individuals generally avoid losses to a greater extent than younger individuals (e.g., Heckhausen, 1997). LA has become an important variable in consumer research (Ariely et al, 2005; Paraschiv and L’Haridon, 2008) and is consistent with the observation that older individuals are more focused on goals pertaining to maintenance and regulation of loss (Ebner et al, 2006). Cole et al (2008) suggest, based on ‘‘regulatory focus theory’’ (Avnet and Higgins, 2006), that older individuals would be more preventionfocused i.e., avoid losses, than promotion-focused i.e., pursuit of gains LA has become an important variable in consumer research (Ariely et al, 2005; Paraschiv and L’Haridon, 2008) and is consistent with the observation that older individuals are more focused on goals pertaining to maintenance and regulation of loss (Ebner et al, 2006). Cole et al (2008) suggest, based on ‘‘regulatory focus theory’’ (Avnet and Higgins, 2006), that older individuals would be more preventionfocused i.e., avoid losses, than promotion-focused i.e., pursuit of gains
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