Eldar Shafir, Sendhil Mullainathan, and their colleagues have observed
other instances in which poverty induces economic behavior that is in
some respects more realistic and more rational than that of people who
are better off. The poor are more likely to respond to real outcomes than to
their description. Marianne Bertrand, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Eldar
Shafir, “Behavioral Economics and Marketing in Aid of Decision Making
Among the Poor,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 25 (2006): 8–23.
in the United States and in the UK : The conclusion that money spent on
purchases is not experienced as a loss is more likely to be true for people
who are relatively well-off. The key may be whether you are aware when
you buy one good that you will not be unable to afford another good.
Novemsky and Kahneman, “The Boundaries of Loss Aversion.” Ian
Bateman et al., “Testing Competing Models of Loss Aversion: An
Adversarial Collaboration,” Journal of Public Economics 89 (2005):
1561–80.

28: Bad Events

heartbeat accelerated : Paul J. Whalen et al., “Human Amygdala
Responsivity to Masked Fearful Eye Whites,” Science 306 (2004): 2061.
Individuals with focal lesions of the amygdala showed little or no loss
aversion in their risky choices: Benedetto De Martino, Colin F. Camerer,
and Ralph Adolphs, “Amygdala Damage Eliminates Monetary Loss
Aversion,” PNAS 107 (2010): 3788–92.
bypassing the visual cortex : Joseph LeDoux, The Emotional Brain: The
Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (New York: Touchstone,
1996).
processed faster : Elaine Fox et al., “Facial Expressions of Emotion: Are
Angry Faces Detected More Efficiently?” Cognition & Emotion 14 (2000):
61–92.
“pops out” : Christine Hansen and Ranald Hansen, “Finding the Face in the
Crowd: An Anger Superiority Effect,” Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology 54 (1988): 917–24.
“acceptable/unacceptable” : Jos J. A. Van Berkum et al., “Right or Wrong?
The Brain’s Fast Response to Morally Objectionable Statements,”
Psychological Science 20 (2009): 1092–99.
negativity dominance : Paul Rozin and Edward B. Royzman, “Negativity
Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion,” Personality and Social
Psychology Review 5 (2001): 296–320.
resistant to disconfirmation : Roy F. Baumeister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Catrin