Study Rejects Notion That Men Like to Take More Risks Than Women

American researchers have come out with a new economics paper rejecting previous studies which suggest that men are more likely to indulge in risky situations, such as gambling, compared to women. The paper by Julie Nelson, chairwoman of the economics department at University of Massachusetts-Boston, and released this week, revealed that men could be just as risk-averse as women, if not more.

"The paper finds a lot of the economics and finance research in behavioral differences between men and women is vastly exaggerated," ABC News quoted Nelson as saying.

Nelson and a research assistant reviewed more than 24 published articles about the subject, many of which studied men and women's gambling habits and often concluded that women were less willing to gamble.

Nelson often found small differences in the averages of the two genders that measured how willing they were to take risks.

Nelson pointed out that it should be difficult to generalize on risk just from studies about lottery-like games, upon which is what much of the research is based.

She also noted that generalizations based upon gender about risk-aversion could lead to broader cultural bias in financial decision-making and the workplace.

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Source-ANI