RT Journal Article
T1 Addressing financial biases in university undergraduates: Unveiling connections with knowledge, behaviours and attitudes
A1 López Penabad, Celia
A1 Álvarez Espiño, Marcos
A1 Benito Torres, José Leandro
K1 Financial literacy
K1 Financial biases
K1 Data Envelopment Analysis
K1 Spain
K1 University students
AB Purpose This study investigates how financial knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes shape the prevalence of financial biases among Economics students at the University of Santiago de Compostela.Methodology Based on survey data from 403 first- and fourth-year students, a composite bias index—covering overconfidence, gambler’s fallacy, and herd behaviour—is constructed using the Benefit of the Doubt method. Truncated regressions explore the influence of financial capability.FindingsResults show attitudinal factors explain biases better than knowledge. Surprisingly, behaviours such as long-term planning and fraud avoidance increase susceptibility to biases. These findings highlight the complexity of financial decision-making and the need for emotionally aware, bias-targeted financial education. ValueThis paper introduces a novel approach by constructing multiple financial bias indices and calling for hands-on, behaviour-focused financial education.
PB Public Library of Science
SN 1932-6203
YR 2025
FD 2025-11-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/43639
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/43639
LA eng
NO López-Penabad, C., Álvarez-Espiño, M., & Benito-Torres, L. (2025) “Addressing financial biases in university undergraduates: Unveiling connections with knowledge, behaviours and attitudes”, PLoS One, Vol. 20, No. 11, e0336274. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336274
NO Marcos Álvarez-Espiño acknowledges the financial support from the Ministry of Universities of Spain through the FPU program (Grants for University Teaching Staff Training) [FPU21/03287] at the early stage of this research. Grupo de Investigación GI-1866-USC “Valoración Financeira Aplicada - VALFINAP”, Grupo de Referencia Competitiva do Sistema Universitario de Galicia – Xunta de Galicia, ED431C 2024/08. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026