Resilient Humans and Technology

These are the guiding questions of our research programme within the Future Resilient Systems II between ETH Zurich and the Singapore-ETH Centre. To investigate these questions, we created the external pageResilience and Tech Databasecall_made of survey responses measuring individual resilience in face of use of financial technology (FinTech) tools. This database covers general population samples in Singapore and in Switzerland, as well as specific samples generated in collaboration with industry partners. One of our industry partners - TWINT AG, who is an e-wallet provider in Switzerland was able to use insights from our scientific research to inform their product and service development. This showcases a transfer of academic behavioural science research to practice.

One of the key insights stemming from our data is that FinTech users adopt new apps because they fit their lifestyle, even if they perceive the apps as being more risky. We also find that FinTech users are financially more resilient than non-users, while psychological resilience factors such as mental health and resistance to stress, are important correlates with financial resilience. This means that people with higher psychological resilience tend to have more economic resources, better financial knowledge and skills and better access to financial services. Social capital, measured with the strength and size of a person's social network, is an important component of financial resilience and mediates adoption of technologies such as e-Wallets.

This is an ongoing project, for which we continuously enlarge our database and useful insights. The project is regularly updated on the external pageOpen Science Frameworkcall_made.