The Risk-Taking Software Engineer: A Framed Portrait
Lorenz Graf-Vlachy

TL;DR
This study investigates how framing effects influence risk-taking among software engineers and finds that framing significantly impacts their decisions, while personality traits do not have a notable effect.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence that framing effects significantly influence software engineers' risk-taking behavior, highlighting the importance of framing awareness in management.
Findings
Framing effects substantially influence risk-taking decisions.
Personality traits are not significantly related to risk-taking after correction.
Software engineers and managers should consider framing effects in decision-making.
Abstract
Background: Risk-taking is prevalent in a host of activities performed by software engineers on a daily basis, yet there is scant research on it. Aims and Method: We study if software engineers' risk-taking is affected by framing effects and by software engineers' personality. To this end, we perform a survey experiment with 124 software engineers. Results: We find that framing substantially affects their risk-taking. None of the "Big Five" personality traits are related to risk-taking in software engineers after correcting for multiple testing. Conclusions: Software engineers and their managers must be aware of framing effects and account for them properly.
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Taxonomy
TopicsPersonality Traits and Psychology · Software Engineering Techniques and Practices · Information and Cyber Security
