From Scientific American Website: Link "In study after study, people have proven that they focus more on avoiding a loss than scoring a potential gain."

"Two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School analyzed info on more than 1.6 million putts on the PGA Tour over four years. They found that when players had the chance for birdie in one shot, they settled for getting par in two shots about 3 percent more often than when they shot to avoid a bogey (and get par)."

"Golf isn't the only sport that traps athletes into emotional decisions. A paper [pdf] from the Texas A&M Mays Business School found that major league baseball managers too often take the score into account when deciding whether to attempt stealing second base. They found that teams already in the lead were willing to risk more to avoid losing than teams that needed to catch up. Indeed, the pang of an avoidable loss lingers longer than the rush of an expected victory."

Does this sort of thing apply in Duplicate Bridge? I think so.