A large number of personality and cognition tests provide the background for a detailed characterization of a decision makers idiosyncrasy. The role of such idiosyncratic features in economic decision making is certainly an under-investigated area and a promising meeting point for Psychology and Economics.
Researchers on cognitive processes and personality may benefit from the wealth of theory, methodology, and decision making paradigms used in economics and game theory. Similarly, for the economist, personality traits and basic cognitive processes may offer a set of coherent constructs, that, when applied in a theoretically meaningful way, can help explain complexities in the patterns of economic behaviour. In fact, given the ongoing debate on preference invariance and behavioural consistency across contexts and domains, the topic will hopefully shed light and offer evidence in favour or against the existence of a stable set of features in a decision makers idiosyncrasy and their relevance for decision making in economic contexts. Consequently, the study of human economic behaviour would benefit from a joint approach using experimental economic methods and psychological theory.
Recently, a number of studies have shown that cognitive reflection plays an important role in a persons decision making performance. However, the underlying process and the relationship with the decision makers personality has not been clarified. A joint approach to cognitive and personality psychology will be encouraged to emphasize the interdependence of behaviour and conditions, mediated by the constructions and cognitive activities of the person who generates them.
This Research Topic welcomes state of the art research in Economic Psychology, reporting results from the study of economic decision making parallel to cognitive and/or personality assessment of the subjects. The Topic Editors will look for contributions on the frontier of the relevant research world-wide, encouraging submissions on recent developments from agendas which combine cognition and personality as explanatory factors of economic decisions. Approaches which combine theoretical contributions in Economics on individual decision-making with possible empirical and theoretical explanations of observed patterns of behaviour in the lab will be of particular interest for this topic.
Research interests covered by the topic include, but are not limited to:
Cognitive ability and performance in economic decisions
Personality and performance in economic decisions
Personality and/or cognitive processes as determinants of economic decisions
Personality and cognition in economic paradoxes
Personality and cognitive assessment in decision making under uncertainty
Personality and cognition as determinants of behaviour in complex markets and games
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.