How can people lead fulfilling lives both thanks to and despite the constant use of digital media and artificial intelligence? While the prevailing narrative often portrays these technologies as generally harmful to well-being, the reality is of course more nuanced—some individuals benefit, while others do not. Existing research has predominantly focused on the general consequences of digital media on well-being, with less attention given to the individual-level antecedents of digital well-being. In the present study, we aimed to identify the traits and characteristics of individuals who use digital tools in ways that promote their well-being. Using a large representative sample from Sweden (N = 1999), we explore how digital self-control, digital literacy (objective and subjective), and digital information ignorance predict digital well-being, life satisfaction, and social anxiety. Digital self-control and subjective digital literacy positively predicted digital well-being. Digital self-control also predicted greater life satisfaction. Finally, digital information ignorance predicted increased life satisfaction and social anxiety. Overall, the current study contributes to a growing literature on digital well-being by exploring its antecedents.

Introduction: Saving is a journey, beginning with the critical decision to initiate the process, take that pivotal first deposit step, and persistently commit to ongoing savings. However, a lot of saving plans fail already before any deposit is made, and even if the first deposit is made, long-run success of savings is far from guaranteed. In this study, we investigate both individual and saving-goal-specific determinants of successful savings.

Method: We use real-life savings data (N = 2,619 saving goals of 808 individuals) from a FinTech company in Sweden that helps individuals save for their goals. In addition, we collect a wide range of individual characteristics related to financial behavior: individuals' objective and subjective financial knowledge, self-control, and information avoidance.

Results and discussion: Our analysis uncovered distinctive patterns at different stages of the saving process. While objective financial knowledge didn't correlate with how much one saves, it was significantly related to the likelihood of making the first deposit. Furthermore, individuals with high self-control exhibited greater savings, though self-control was not related to the initiation of saving. Interestingly, subjective financial literacy and information avoidance showed no significant association with overall savings behavior. Additionally, our study indicated that the attainability of goals plays a crucial role in depositing funds, with more achievable goals having higher deposit likelihoods. Conversely, ambitious goals, despite their challenging nature, tended to attract more substantial savings. Our findings, grounded in real-life data, provide valuable insights into the intricate mechanisms influencing successful saving behaviors, shedding light on the complexities of financial decision-making and goal pursuit.

Information ignorance refers to the act of deliberately avoiding, neglecting, or distorting information to uphold a positive self-image and protect our identity-based beliefs. We apply this framework to household finance and develop a concise 12-item questionnaire measuring individuals' receptiveness to financial information, or the lack thereof - the Financial Homo Ignorans (FHI) Scale. We conduct two studies with samples from the general population in Sweden (total N=2508) and show that the FHI scale has high reliability and distinct from other commonly used individual-difference measures in behavioral finance. We show that individual heterogeneity as assessed by the FHI scale explains a substantial variation in financial behaviors and financial well-being, also when controlling for demographics and financial literacy. These results unequivocally demonstrate the utility of the FHI scale as a valuable instrument for researchers and practitioners in comprehending and addressing the challenges posed by the omnipresence of financial information in today's world.

We conducted two studies investigating how financial well-being was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Across both studies conducted in Sweden, we find that COVID-19 was associated with an overall improvement in subjective financial well-being. The positive effect was driven by a general decline in anxiety toward current financial matters, while financial security with regard to the future declined (Study 1) or was unaffected (Study 2). These results might seem paradoxical. But we propose two explanations: (a) People have a limited ability to worry about two things at the same time. Financial problems might therefore be less emotionally salient in the face of more urgent nonfinancial problems and (b) Some people likely experienced an initial slack in their household finances due to decreased spending opportunities at the onset of COVID-19, which to some extent could counteract increased worry about future financial security.

We explore how financial scarcity affects the strategy people choose to pay off their debts and the role of information avoidance in debt repayment. We conduct an online experiment in the United Kingdom (N = 1,000) in which people are endowed with multiple debts and given the task to pay off as many debts as possible during 15 rounds. We manipulate the level of financial scarcity by randomly assigning individuals to experience either a negative, a positive, or no financial shock during these 15 rounds. The results show that perceived financial scarcity is related to less optimal debt repayment. In conclusion, our findings suggest that perceived scarcity propels further scarcity due to poor debt management.

Outcome editing refers to a set of mental rules that people apply when deciding whether to evaluate multiple outcomes jointly or separately, which subsequently affects choice. In a large-scale online survey (n = 2062) we investigate whether individuals use the same outcome editing rules for financial outcomes (e.g., a lottery win) and social outcomes (e.g., a party with friends). We also test the role of numeric ability in explaining outcome editing. Our results show that people’s preferences for combining or separating events depend on whether those events are in the financial or the social domain. Specifically, individuals were more likely to segregate social outcomes than monetary outcomes, except for when all outcomes were negative. Moreover, numeric ability was associated with preferences for outcome editing in the financial domain but not in the social domain. Our findings extend the understanding of the arithmetic operations underlying outcome editing and suggest that people rely more on calculations when making choices involving multiple financial outcomes and more on feelings when making choices involving social outcomes.

We investigate the antecedents of subjective financial well-being and general well-being during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In an online survey conducted in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic with over 1000 Swedish participants we found that distrust in the government to cope with financial (but not healthcare) challenges of the pandemic was negatively related to the feeling of financial security. In a structural equation model, we also show that trust in government to deal with financial challenges of COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on general well-being through the mediating channel of financial well-being. In addition, trust in government to deal with healthcare challenges of COVID-19 pandemic has a significant direct impact on individuals’ general well-being. Our findings have important implications for public policy as they highlight the importance of citizens’ trust in well-functioning governmental institutions to help cope with not only healthcare, but also financial challenges of an ongoing pandemic.

Convoluted language makes excessive use of difficult expressions and style. This type oflanguage is often used to describe financial products. Anecdotal and empirical evidencesuggests that convoluted language can have an adverse effect on consumers. However, it isless clear how exactly convoluted language affects consumers’ financial decisions. The mainobjective of our project was to explore how convoluted language affects consumers offinancial products. We conducted two online experiments in which we investigated the impactof terms and conditions of car insurance policies described in simple versus convolutedlanguage to consumers. Results indicate that convoluted language has an adverse effect onthe emotional aspects of financial well-being, purchase intention, and the understanding offinancial products; even when controlling for demographic variables (e.g., gender, age).Consumer’s financial self-efficacy, financial knowledge, and numerical ability had little impacton this adverse effect. Our findings highlight the importance to consider—and potentiallychange—how information is presented when describing and communicating financialproducts.