L. Jon Wertheim

As the late baseball manager Sparky Anderson put it: __osing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good.

Inside the opponent__ 45-yard line, facing anything less than fourth and eight, teams are better off going for it than punting. Inside the opponent__ 33-yard line, they are better off going for it on anything less than fourth and 11.* Regardless of field position, on anything less than fourth and five, teams are always better off going for it.

Time and again, we let the fear of loss overpower rational decision-making and often make ourselves worse off just to avoid a potential loss. Psychologists call this loss aversion, and it means we often tend to prefer avoiding losses at the expense of acquiring gains.

the pain of losing a dollar is far more powerful than the pleasure of winning a dollar.