Overdue debt and selected personality traits – a research based on international surveys

Abstract

Households and individuals make various financial decisions, some of which are regarding debt. In 2018 a survey was conducted in six European countries on incurring financial liabilities and falling into debt. The survey was expected to provide insights as to the habits and attitudes of the surveyed while making debt decisions. The aim of this paper is to identify personal characteristics of debtors across different European countries and to compare the incidence of these characteristics in the groups examined across those countries. The hypothesis was that individuals who never fall into arrears differ from those who had or still have debt in terms of their personality traits. The research was carried out in Spain, Romania, Poland and Italy. Depending on the country, the sample size ranged from 802 to 1200 participants. The statistical analysis found that for most of these countries there existed significant differences between debtors and debt-free individuals regarding the level of conscientiousness, honesty, attitude towards money and shopping.

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