Learning to win by fearing to lose: the surprising power of loss aversion in education

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of loss-aversion framing on student performance in a higher education context through a field experiment. Participants were assigned to three treatment groups: traditional gain-framed scoring, loss-framed scoring, and a hybrid approach combining both. The findings suggest that loss-framing consistently improves academic performance throughout the semester and on final assessments. Furthermore, the effect of loss-framing does not diminish over time. The study also finds no evidence of heterogeneous impacts based on gender or academic ability, indicating that this approach offers a practical and effective method for improving educational outcomes.