David Gal is Professor of Marketing at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. He is best known for his critiques of

behavioral economics Behavioral economics is the study of the psychological (e.g. cognitive, behavioral, affective, social) factors involved in the decisions of individuals or institutions, and how these decisions deviate from those implied by traditional economi ...

, and in particular his critique of the behavioral economics concept of

loss aversion In cognitive science and behavioral economics, loss aversion refers to a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. It should not be confused with risk aversion, which descri ...

Academic career

Gal received his Ph.D. from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 2007. He joined the faculty of

The Kellogg School of Management The Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (branded as Northwestern Kellogg) is the graduate business school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois. History Early ...

at Northwestern University where he remained until 2014, at which time he joined the faculty of The University of Illinois at Chicago. His research has been published in

Journal of Consumer Research The ''Journal of Consumer Research'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on the psychological aspects of consumer behavior. It was established in 1974 and originally published by University of Chicago Press. Since 2015 ...

Journal of Marketing Research ''Journal of Marketing Research'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Marketing Association. It was established in 1964 and covers all aspects of marketing research. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', ...

Journal of Marketing The ''Journal of Marketing'' is a bimonthly scholarly journal that publishes peer-reviewed research in marketing. It is published by the American Marketing Association. Established in 1936, It is the fourth-oldest major journal covering marketing ...

, Judgment and Decision Making,

Psychological Science ''Psychological Science'', the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is a monthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by SAGE Publications. The journal publishes research articles, short reports, and research repor ...

Management Science Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

, and

Journal of the American Statistical Association The ''Journal of the American Statistical Association'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the American Statistical Association. It covers work primarily focused on the application of statis ...

. It has been featured in the ''New York Times'', ''Wall Street Journal'', ''The Toronto Star'', ''Time'', ''Harvard Business Review'', and ''The Globe and Mail','' among other outlets. He was named a

Marketing Science Institute The Marketing Science Institute (MSI) is a corporate-membership-based organization. MSI was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MSI financially supports academic research on topics of importance to business performanc ...

Young Scholar in 2013 and a Marketing Science Institute Scholar in 2018.

Critique of Loss Aversion and Behavioral Economics

Loss aversion is the principle that losses loom larger than gains. It was introduced by the economics Nobel Prize winner

Daniel Kahneman Daniel Kahneman (; ; March 5, 1934 – March 27, 2024) was an Israeli-American psychologist best known for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memor ...

and

Amos Tversky Amos Nathan Tversky (; March 16, 1937 – June 2, 1996) was an Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. Much of his early work concerned th ...

in a 1979 paper that is the most cited in economics and third most cited in psychology. Gal has argued that loss aversion is not supported by the evidence and that most phenomena attributed to loss aversion have alternative explanations that are more consistent with the evidence. In particular, Gal has cited

psychological inertia Psychological inertia is the tendency to maintain the status quo (or default option) unless compelled by a psychological motive to intervene or reject this. Psychological inertia is similar to the status-quo bias but there is an important distinc ...

as an explanation for the

endowment effect In psychology and behavioral economics, the endowment effect, also known as divestiture aversion, is the finding that people are more likely to retain an object they own than acquire that same object when they do not own it. The endowment theory ca ...

and

status quo bias A status quo bias or default bias is a cognitive bias which results from a preference for the maintenance of one's existing state of affairs. The current baseline (or status quo) is taken as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is p ...

. In addition to his specific critique of loss aversion, Gal has argued that behavioral economics more broadly has been too concerned with understanding ''how'' behavior deviates from standard economic models rather than with understanding ''why'' people behave the way they do. Understanding why behavior occurs is necessary for the creation of generalizable knowledge, the goal of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

. He has referred to behavioral economics as a triumph of marketing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gal, David University of Illinois faculty Stanford University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people