The Risk-Taking Software Engineer: A Framed Portrait

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.