How to disclose future performance of non-equity financial products. Evidence from a consumer testing exercise and a physiological experiment on retail investors

This research focuses on disclosure of information about the uncertain future performance of non-equity financial products. In particular, it looks at two schemes, namely What-if and Probabilistic scenarios. For this purpose, a consumer testing experiment was conducted on a sample of 1,130 potential investors stratified according to ISTAT standard to explore: how different schemes influence investor’s risk perception and whether financial literacy and sociodemographic variables are drivers of risk assessment. The analysis was performed using multilevel regression models.