Competence in financial matters has become part and parcel of everyday life, both at work and at home. Traditional learning cannot deliver the necessary skills, and more innovative solutions are needed. Serious games, wearable sensors, and behavioural and cognitive neuroscience lie at the heart of this project’s novel, technology-supported approach to expertise and competence-building in financial decision making.

A compelling case

Nobody seriously questions nowadays the need to provide ordinary citizens and professionals with suitable learning opportunities to improve their financial decision skills. The recent financial crisis has made it plain that flawed judgments aren’t the exclusive realm of laypeople. There is ample evidence that private investors and traders at large investment banks suffered from many of the same shortcomings as ordinary people. So, what can be done to help individuals avoid the common decision traps and impel them to take those actions that in fact improve their own economic wellbeing and that of their environment? Results from traditional learning approaches to overcome this problem have so far been disappointing, but cutting-edge gaming and sensor technology are showing us new ways to bolster cognitive and emotional decision making skills.

An innovative solution

People’s behaviours, habits and emotional states when they make financial decisions take the centre stage in a new, three-year pan-European research project, xDelia, involving universities, research centres, and financial institutions from six European countries. The focus is on a broad range of individuals, from traders and private investors to ordinary members of the public, and the research team will use new and emerging technologies to explore financial decision-making processes, including the role of emotion in people’s decisions. The project will develop new approaches to learning in real-world settings through serious games and wearable sensor technology to overcome some of the important obstacles to better financial decision making.