Financial and non-financial risk attitudes: What does it matter?

Abstract In this paper we try to: (i) study the personal features of the subjects that can influence the risk attitude in financial and non-financial contexts, (ii) understand the correspondences among some behaviors in financial and non-financial choices. We start from the questionnaire used by Colasante and Riccetti (2020), that investigates how subjects take into account the first four moments of the return distribution in making risky decisions, and that collects data from a very large and heterogeneous population. We find that age and geographical location are important determinants of risk propensity in all domains. Moreover, we find that risk attitudes in financial and non-financial contexts are correlated, but correlation is far from 1, with a larger risk aversion in non-financial contexts. Therefore, there is a common underlying risk trait, but the context is also relevant. Interestingly, the financial risk propensity is positively correlated to the propensity to perform illegal activities.