Determinants of financial decision-making

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are glad that you are interested in our research project on financial decisions, which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. In this project we investigate which external factors, personal characteristics and neural and physiological processes influence financial decisions.

Investment decisions are complex, and one often knows only later whether a decision was a good one. With your participation you help us better understand the decision-making processes for financial investments and to identify the most important personality traits of successful investors. Our study examines the decision-making processes using the latest neuroscientific and psychological methods. Our goal is to analyze the role of the trader personality in investment decisions. We also determine to what extent neural predispositions have an influence on it.

As the study progresses, you will receive individualized feedback that could help you make better decisions in the future. Of course, this is done confidentially and in accordance with the applicable data protection laws.

We are looking for healthy individuals between 18 and 75 years of age.

Study flow:

1) Analysis of your investment decisions
2) Investigation of your investor personality with
• Online questionnaire (duration approx. 1 hour)
• Behavioral economics study (duration approx. 5-6 hours, can be completed in the decision laboratory in Basel or Zurich or online)
3) Measurements of your brain activity with functional magnetic resonance tomography (in Basel: two appointments with approx. 2 hours; in Zurich: one appointment with approx. 3.5-4 hours or two appointments with 2 hours each are possible)
4) If you have completed all parts of the study: final aperitif with all participants and researchers

As soon as you have completed the first questionnaire, we will contact you with an invitation to the other parts of the study. You are of course free to end your participation in the study at any time.

On this website you can register to participate in various parts of the study. We will then contact you with further information.

Our study is carried out by four teams:
University of Zurich, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Hens
University of Basel, Prof. Dr. Rui Mata
University of Basel, Prof. Dr. Jörg Rieskamp
University of Zurich, Prof. Dr. Philippe Tobler

If you have any questions about registering and managing participant data, please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or contact us at finanzentscheidungen@econ.uzh.ch. Alternatively, you can call us at 044 63 45521, leave a message on the voice mailbox and we will contact you personally as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to welcoming you soon to one of our studies.

The studies in the economic decision laboratory will take place on 1-2 Saturdays per month in Zurich and Basel. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we will not hold any attendance appointments in the economic decision laboratory until further notice. Instead, you can participate in the study online. The appointments for the examination using functional magnetic resonance imaging can now take place again. All appointments are currently being carried out in our laboratory in Zurich, in which we have put high safety standards in place to protect your health. Details on how we protect you and ourselves during studies can be found here.


You will be invited to the appointments as soon as you have completed the online survey.

We have prepared an FAQ for frequently asked questions.

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