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The Effects of Situational and Dispositional Factors on the Change in Risk Aversion: An Attribution Theory Perspective
Short Abstract
Utilizing the lens of Heider’s (1958) attribution theory, the present study explores the effect of situational and dispositional attributions on changes in consumers’ risk aversion. Specifically, situational factors are assessed through changes in household situation (i.e. residence type, family size, net worth), and changes in external socio-economic factors (i.e. inflation rates, and unemployment). For dispositional factors, changes upon sensation seeking attitudes (changes in alcoholic drinking) are explored. The data employed in this research comes from the 1993, 1994, 2002 and 2006 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N=5,530). Results from structural equation modeling indicate that internal attributions have a significant but small effect (.016, P<.01) on the change of risk aversion; the same is found for external attributions which also display a significant effect (.705, P<.01)—see appendix for complete results. Therefore, findings from this study support Heider’s postulates on the impact of internal and external attributions on behavioral changes. Significant implications derived from this study might serve the academic community studying consumer’s financial attitudes and behaviors.