HEURISTICS IN THE DECISION MAKING OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHEN FACED WITH FINANCIAL SITUATIONS

Abstract

This work presents the results of a study that aimed to investigate the decision making of high school students when facing financial situations. For this, 99 students were asked to resolve four fictitious financial situations that required decision making, and subsequently responded to an individual interview. The results revealed that the anchoring, affection, mental accounting and loss aversion heuristics are present in the students’ decisions, affection and loss aversion heuristics being more frequent in their decisions. It was also found that the nature of the financial situation had an effect on the heuristics mobilized by the students. The conclusion was that students’ decisions are not always based only on mathematical calculations, so it is necessary to discuss what leads them to make certain decisions and how heuristics and cognitive biases can influence them.