Adult age differences in risk-taking propensity are universal but show considerable heterogeneity across domains and populations

Abstract

How does risk preference change across the life span? We address this question by conducting a coordinated analysis to obtain the first meta-analytic estimates of adults longitudinal age differences in risk-taking propensity around the world. We report results from 26 longitudinal samples (12 panels; 187,733 unique respondents; 19 countries) covering general and domain-specific risk-taking propensity (financial, driving, recreational, occupational, health) across three or more waves. Results revealed a negative relation between age and both general and domain-specific risk-taking propensity. Females consistently reported lower levels of risk taking across the life span than males in all domains but little support for the idea of an age by gender interaction. Although we found evidence of systematic and universal age differences, we also detected considerable heterogeneity across domains and samples. Our work suggests a need to understand the nature of heterogeneity of age differences in risk-taking propensity and recommends the use of domain-specific and population estimates for applications interested in modeling heterogeneity in risk preference for economic modeling and policy-making.