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Quote:Imagine you’re sitting in front of your computer, sweating and panicky. No, the air conditioning is not broken. And no, you didn’t forward an inappropriate e-mail to your boss. Instead, you’re in the final few minutes of bidding in an eBay auction. As the clock ticks down, the tension mounts. Will your last bid put you over the top? Can you defeat your opponents and claim the prize?

Economists have known for years that people tend to overbid on items up for auction. But experts did not know the reason behind our seemingly irrational behavior. Economists and neuroscientists from New York University teamed up to study this classic economic problem, and they published their results Thursday in Science. Using brain imaging along with carefully constructed games, the paper’s authors discovered a “fear of losing” may lie behind our propensity to overbid...