We hypothesize that the well-documented negativity bias, the psychological tendency to asymmetrically emphasize negative over positive aspects, can help explain several financial market phenomena: why most individuals hold strongly bearish views of both short- and long-term equity return distributions, why individuals exhibit heterogeneous beliefs, and the stock market participation puzzle. Using variation in the perceived risk of mortality from the swine flu pandemic as our primary proxy for an individual's negativity bias, we find strong support for our hypothesis even when controlling for alternative mechanisms including optimism, risk aversion, ambiguity aversion, and anxiety.

我们假设有据可查的消极偏见，即不对称地强调消极方面而不是积极方面的心理倾向，可以帮助解释几种金融市场现象：为什么大多数人对短期和长期股票回报分布都持强烈看跌观点，为什么个人表现出异质性信念和股市参与难题。使用猪流感大流行导致死亡的感知风险的变化作为我们个人消极偏见的主要代表，我们发现强有力的支持我们的假设，即使在控制其他机制（包括乐观、风险厌恶、模糊厌恶和焦虑）时也是如此。