EXPRESS: Personal Sense of Power Predicts Financial Risk-Taking Propensity - But Only When Risk-Related Decisions Are Made Without Cognitive Load.

ABSTRACT

A significant relationship between a sense of power and financial risk-taking has been established in the literature. However, the boundary conditions for this relationship remain unclear. This article presents the results of an online experimental study (N = 192) that explores the moderating role of cognitive load in the relationship between power and financial risk-taking in the domains of gambling and investing. The findings validate a positive association between a sense of power and financial risk-taking, alongside a negative impact of cognitive load on financial risk. Notably, cognitive load moderates the relationship between power and financial risk-taking in a way that the link is positive when individuals have full access to their cognitive resources, but it becomes non-significant when they are under cognitive load.