Attitudes toward money, values and personality traits: A comparison between overindebted and non-overindebted individuals

In recent times, Italian households have faced a period of economic struggles. The financial instability and job loss might have increased the debt burden of many citizens. Thus, the purpose of the present study consisted in identifying the psychological characteristics of overindebted individuals. Specifically, a sample of 101 over-indebted individuals (F = 50.5%; Mage = 50.58, SDage 11.58= ) was compared with a control sample of 103 respondents (F = 53.4%; Mage= 51.68, SDage = 11.38) to investigate which individual differences are mainly associated with higher debt burdens. Financial literacy, Big Five personality traits, impulsivity, materialist tendencies, money attitudes and trust in institutions were assessed among the two groups. Preliminary findings showed some counterintuitive insights. Indeed, though the over-indebted sample are less likely to plan, they reported higher levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, internal locus of control and social support, whilst they also resulted less materialistic. Findings will be discussed with reference to the “scarcity paradigm”, highlighting how being in a condition of scarcity of resources may affect both cognitive and affective processing