Psychological, social, and health-related factors predict risk for financial exploitation

Abstract

People lose tens of billions of dollars a year to financial exploitation in the United States alone. Few studies have examined how preferences for trust and fairness in economic activities may contribute to risk for financial exploitation. Furthermore, few studies have examined the interaction between risk factors. In three studies, we attempt to address these gaps by surveying 1918 (Study 1 = 680, Study 2 = 305, Study 3 = 933) demographically and socioeconomically diverse participants to examine putative risk factors for self-reported financial exploitation. We focused on: (1) how trust in others and fairness preferences during economic games are associated with self-reported financial exploitation; and (2) how sociodemographic and health-related factors interact with psychosocial factors to confer risk for financial exploitation. We found participants with lower socioeconomic status and poor emotion regulation skills were at the greatest risk for financial exploitation. We also found associations between greater risk for financial exploitation and poorer physical health, more severe cognitive decline, increased persuadability, and increased insensitivity to trustworthiness cues. Our findings suggest that risk for financial exploitation is dependent upon a combination of psychosocial, sociodemographic and health factors, which may lead to interventions that protect vulnerable individuals.

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