Personal sense of power predicts financial risk-taking propensity: But only when risk-related decisions are made without cognitive load

A significant relationship between a sense of power and financial risk-taking has been established in the literature. However, the boundary conditions for this relationship remain unclear. This article presents the results of an online experimental study (N=192) that explores the moderating role of cognitive load in the relationship between power and financial risk-taking in the domains of gambling and investing. The findings validate a positive association between a sense of power and financial risk-taking, alongside a negative impact of cognitive load on financial risk. Notably, cognitive load moderates the relationship between power and financial risk-taking in a way that the link is positive when individuals have full access to their cognitive resources, but it becomes nonsignificant when they are under cognitive load.