Designing Targeted Support Final Report - Flipbook - Page 13
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Interaction with Improved Risk Warnings
TISA’s earlier research on risk warnings demonstrated that contextualised messaging – highlighting the
higher long-run returns from stocks and funds relative to cash savings – can increase the amount individuals
allocate to investments by approximately 10–14%. The present study shows that attitudinal Targeted
Support, operating through a different mechanism, can increase investing by 47% or more. An important
question for future work is how these two approaches interact.
Improved risk warnings work by correcting misperceptions about the riskiness and returns of stock and fund
investments. They are a form of general messaging, shown to all consumers, that provides better contextual
information. Attitudinal Targeted Support, by contrast, works by personalising the recommendation to
reflect the consumer segment’s identified attitudes and preferences. These are complementary mechanisms:
the first addresses what consumers know about investment products, while the second addresses which
product is recommended to them. There is good reason to believe that deploying both approaches together
could deliver effects larger than either alone.
Consider an individual with a strong preference for UK investments who also overestimates the riskiness of
stock market investing. Risk warnings which more accurately reflect the balance of risks and returns could
help correct the misconception about risk, while attitudinal Targeted Support could ensure the
recommended product aligns with their preference for UK-based investments. Neither intervention alone
addresses both barriers, but together they could substantially improve the likelihood that this individual
moves from cash savings into an appropriate investment product.
It is also notable that both the risk warnings research and the present study find that treatment effects are
largest among groups less likely to invest: women, those with lower financial confidence, those with lower
incomes and those without prior investment experience. This convergence across two separate studies
reinforces the conclusion that well-designed consumer-facing interventions have particular promise for
broadening participation in investing. Future research should test the combined effects of improved risk
messaging and attitudinal Targeted Support within a single experimental framework, ideally in a real-world
setting, to quantify the potential gains from deploying both approaches together.
April 2026
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