Yeah, I’m not sure about that either. But it strikes me as one possible mechanism among others that could cause pessimism bias.
Another is this: suppose that the world is getting better in some ways, and worse in others. If you are loss-averse, you’re going to weigh the losses more heavily than the gains. This means that you will think that the world is getting worse even though it is not for someone who is not loss-averse (i.e. biased against gains).
Yeah, I’m not sure about that either. But it strikes me as one possible mechanism among others that could cause pessimism bias.
Another is this: suppose that the world is getting better in some ways, and worse in others. If you are loss-averse, you’re going to weigh the losses more heavily than the gains. This means that you will think that the world is getting worse even though it is not for someone who is not loss-averse (i.e. biased against gains).