Why Your Brain Hates Losing | SFI Community Event + Online

Losing $10 hurts roughly twice as much as gaining $10 feels good. This is loss aversion, one of the most robust and surprising findings in behavioral economics. Drawing on fMRI studies, patients with amygdala damage, capuchin monkeys, and more, Colin Camerer will show how different regions of the brain encode gains and losses, and how emotion, not just cold calculation, creates our aversion to loss.
Along the way, we’ll learn about casino gamblers who only quit when they break even, marathoners who speed up near a round-number finishing time, stock traders who cling to losers and dump winners too soon, and taxpayers who file returns owing zero tax. The talk also looks at forces that reduce loss aversion, from beta-blockers and brain damage to simply learning to think like a trader.
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Colin Camerer is the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics at Caltech. He aims to improve the economic analysis of decisions, games, and markets, using methods from psychology and neuroscience, including eye-tracking, lesion patients, EEG, fMRI, wearable sensors, machine learning, and animal behavior. His recent research has focused on visual salience and habits.
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The 2026 Santa Fe Institute Community Lecture Series is free to attend thanks to generous sponsorship by the McKinnon Family Foundation, with additional support from the Santa Fe Reporter and the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

- Free tickets: lensic.org/events/why-your-brain-hates-losing/
- Watch the livestream on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@SFIScience