Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common, disabling condition. Poor decision-making contributes to the physical morbidity, role dysfunction and suicide risk in patients with MDD, but very little research has attempted to objectively measure decision-making in MDD. “Loss aversion” is a behavioral economic measure of the degree to which individuals demonstrate greater sensitivity to the possibility of losing objects or money than to the possibility of gaining the same objects or amounts of money. This study aimed to identify whether loss aversion differed between patients with MDD and healthy control (HC) participants. Subjects completed a three-hour process of evaluation and testing in order to “earn” $100. One week later, they completed a decision-making task while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The decision-making task involved presenting 120 trials of risky decisions which participants chose to accept or reject. Each risky decision represented an equal chance (50:50) of adding to or losing some of their $100 endowment. The amount to be won or lost varied from trial to trial to allow for models to be built from which loss aversion level was derived. Twenty-four HC and 19 MDD participants completed the study. Two methods for calculation of loss aversion were employed. In the subject-level analysis, mean loss aversion for the two groups differed significantly (HC: 1.64 ± 0.78, MDD: 1.19 ± 0.49, p=.032). However, after removal of 2 outliers, the difference was no longer significant (HC: 1.53 ± 0.55, MDD: 1.25 ± 0.41, p=.085). In the representative agent analysis, mean loss aversion was nearly identical (HC: 1.37; MDD = 1.34, p = n.s.). Multiple regression analyses suggested impulsivity was associated with greater loss aversion, and that there was an interaction between self-reported risk-taking and mood state, such that highrisk taking subjects had lower aversion to losses. These results suggest that at a group level, there are no meaningful differences in loss aversion between MDD and HC subjects. However, MDD occurring in a person with low impulsivity but high risk-taking may reduce sensitivity to loss, and thus contribute to poor decision-making in real-life situations.