Most people know that losses hurt more than equal gains feel good. This quiz shows how that asymmetry reaches you. Prospect theory, from Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, says a loss tends to weigh roughly twice as much as an equal gain. But the pain arrives through different doors: how an option is worded, how certain it feels, or whether you already own it.
What the quiz measures
- Framing: how much the same facts change your decision when they are worded as a gain or as a loss (the framing effect, Tversky and Kahneman, 1981).
- Certainty: how strongly a guaranteed outcome beats a probable one of equal or higher value (the certainty effect, Kahneman and Tversky, 1979).
- Endowment: how much more you demand to give something up than you would pay to get it (the endowment effect, Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler, 1990).
- Core: the raw pull of a loss compared with an equal gain, whatever the wording, odds or ownership.
Two ways to take it
The 10-question version is a quick read of which door your loss aversion uses most. The 30-question version tests the same four doors across money, work, possessions, health and time, so the call rests on more evidence and you get a finer breakdown. Your answers are scored in your browser. This is a tool for psychological self-insight, not financial advice.