Behavioral finance studies how people make financial decisions, including choices that do not match a simple model of fully informed reasoning. For students, the challenge is to turn a familiar bias into a question that can be measured without risking anyone's money or collecting sensitive financial information.
The following ideas are project designs, not claims that a particular effect will appear in your sample. A result that contradicts your expectation can still be good research if the design and reporting are sound.
Six research topics with clear comparisons
1. Does a savings goal change with its wording?
Present equivalent hypothetical savings outcomes in two forms: the amount retained and the amount given up. Assign participants to one version and compare their choices. Keep the arithmetic, time horizon and information identical. If several details change together, the effect cannot be attributed to wording alone.
2. Do percentage and currency fees produce different understanding?
Describe the same hypothetical fee as a percentage or a currency amount, then test comprehension. Use a fixed transaction size so the descriptions are equivalent. Report both the proportion answering correctly and the actual numbers in each group. This studies understanding, not participants' real financial behavior.
3. Does a suggested number influence a hypothetical valuation?
Give participants the same short fictional business description with different clearly labelled reference numbers. Ask for an estimate and compare distributions, including medians and ranges. Avoid a real investment solicitation. Explain that prior knowledge and attention may also affect responses.
4. Does social information change an investment choice?
Use fictional assets and a hypothetical popularity statement. Keep risk and payoff descriptions constant. If the exercise uses invented social information, get your school's approval and explain the design to participants afterwards. A classroom exercise does not establish how investors behave with real money.
5. Are confidence and accuracy aligned?
Ask a set of factual financial-literacy questions and request a confidence estimate for each answer. Compare accuracy with confidence using a transparent scoring rule. Distinguish overconfidence from lack of knowledge: they are related questions, not interchangeable measures.
6. How does the presentation of past returns affect interpretation?
Show an identical hypothetical price series with different chart scales. Ask what participants infer about volatility or performance. Clearly label charts and debrief participants about the visual change. This can investigate communication without collecting any personal trading history.
A practical research design
Choose one primary outcome before collecting responses. Write the exact question, the two versions, your assignment method and the planned calculation. Test the wording on a small pilot group, then document changes before the main exercise. Do not remove inconvenient responses after seeing whether they support your hypothesis.
For example, if the outcome is fee comprehension, report the number correct out of the number responding in each group. Explain the difference in percentage points. A small sample can produce a large apparent gap by chance, so discuss uncertainty and avoid population-wide claims.
Ethics and privacy
Follow your school's rules for research involving people and obtain required teacher, parent or participant permissions. Participation should be voluntary, with a clear way to decline. Use hypothetical choices, avoid asking for balances, account numbers or family debt, and collect only the information needed for your question. Do not diagnose participants or label individual students as irrational.
If participant research is not appropriate, use a literature-based project instead. Compare published study designs, participant populations, incentives and limitations. Explain why an effect found in one setting may not transfer to teenagers in another country. Summarize evidence in your own words and cite the original studies you actually read.
How to write the findings
Separate the hypothesis, method, results and interpretation. Include the exercise wording, sample size, recruitment method and exclusions. Show the underlying counts alongside percentages. Describe competing explanations such as uneven prior knowledge, confusing instructions or a convenience sample. Explain what a better follow-up study would change.
Connecting the question to finance research at GRF
Global Research Fellowship offers live online finance research for high school students worldwide. Its Research Desk, led by Alex Dryden, a former J.P. Morgan senior economist, focuses on company research and valuation. Behavioral-finance questions fall outside that fixed curriculum when they require a separate participant study. Families can discuss the suitability of a specific question for private mentorship, subject to mentor expertise, supervision and the school's research requirements.
Read our guides to choosing a research question, correlation and causation and writing a literature review before finalizing a design.