Economic Preferences and Personality Traits Among Finance Professionals and the General Population

2023/07/31 by Martin Holmén, Felix Holzmeister, Michael Kirchler +2 · 2 voices
Social Sciences · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/ej/uead038

openalex publication_date 2023/07/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Abstract Based on artefactual field experiments, we investigate whether finance professionals differ from a sample of the working population in terms of industry-relevant preferences and personality traits. When adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, we find only few and less marked differences: finance professionals are less risk averse, less trustworthy, show higher levels of psychopathy and are more competitive than participants from the general population. In an additional survey, experts with hiring experience consider industry selection, self-selection and imprinting by industry norms as explanatory for the observed subject pool differences.

Citations

• An Experiment on Risk Taking and Evaluation Periods
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Discussions

• Sorry, I just...okay, this econ paper appears to show that finance professionals are mostly like the gen pop except for less risk aversion. Oh, and elevated psychopathy and competitiveness, paired wi [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Link doi.org/10.1093/ej/u... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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