The Relationship between Economic Preferences, Personality Traits and Financial literacy:An Experimental Study in Tehran City

In the modern era, the study of human behavior and providing solutions to improve decision-making can be considered one of the most important aims in management, economics and psychology. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of personality traits and financial literacy of people on their economic behavior. Economists typically depict decision problems in a framework of utility maximization. An individual’s utility is shaped by preferences such as risk, time, and social preferences. These preferences, in combination with expectations of future events, beliefs, consideration and constraints shape behavior. Personality psychology offers several frameworks describing universal traits and individual differences. Personality traits as the relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that reflect the tendency to respond in certain ways under certain circumstances are important determinants of personality. On the other hand, financial literacy is information that shows the importance of financial education and the variety of financial outcomes. Defining and applying the concept of financial literacy and its evaluation can be necessary for a better understanding of the impact of education as well as the obstacles to a correct financial choice. In this study, we conducted choice experiments on key economic preferences, obtained multiple behavioral measures for each preference. Then, we assessed personality traits of individuals by using big five. The result of this study, with participation of 1000 participants, while confirming the results of previous studies, showed that personality traits and financial literacy affect economic preferences.