New research reveals that women are less willing to take risks than men because they are more sensitive to the pain of any losses they might incur than any gains they might make. The study also finds that men are 'significantly' more optimistic than women, making them more willing to take risks.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Psychology, showed that women report a lower willingness to take risks than men with 53 per cent of this gap accounted for by the higher levels of loss aversion among women and a further 3 per cent attributable to the lower levels of financial optimism among women.