Even the world’s best pros are so consumed with avoiding bogeys that they make putts for birdie discernibly less often than identical-length putts for par, according to a coming paper by two professors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. After analyzing laser-precise data on more than 1.6 million Tour putts, they estimated that this preference for avoiding a negative (bogey) more than gaining an equal positive (birdie) — known in economics as loss aversion — costs the average pro about one stroke per 72-hole tournament, and the top 20 golfers about $1.2 million in prize money a year.

A fascinating study in the New York Times this week (which should have been somewhere other than the sports section) on the cost of fear. We think by being cautious we hold on to our gains, but in fact fear costs us long-term. I confess I’m like this; a loss seems bigger to me than the same-sized gain. Or more precisely, perhaps, the pain of a loss is considerably more than the sense of joy or satisfaction at the same-sized gain. This is why politicians run negative ads, and why people hold on to stocks they’ve taken a loss on. We know this intuitively, but it is remarkable to see it demonstrated so clearly.