Personality traits and gender differences
An emerging body of international literature is beginning to reveal a significant connection between financial capability metrics and personality, suggesting that what influences our financial well-being may be more nuanced than we previously thought. In 2015, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) conducted the first survey to investigate this issue in a Canadian context.
In the first report of our three-part research series, we investigate how the inclusion of personality traits impacts the analysis of the gender difference in financial capability scores. An extensive body of research has shown a significant difference, in which women tend to score lower across a wide range of metrics, which led researchers to believe that gender was an important determinant. Our research findings show that this is not the whole story.