Zopa’s asking you to discover your financial spirit animal
IT’S A jungle out there when it comes to financial decisions – according to Zopa.
The peer-to-peer consumer lender has launched a survey to help people discover their “financial spirit animal”.
Working with Professor Erica Fudge of the University of Strathclyde, Zopa has discovered links between financial decision-making and the behaviours found in the animal kingdom.
According to the study, people are predominantly conservative in their outlook, with 30 per cent of respondents identifying with ‘saver squirrels’ and the same amount aligning themselves with ‘agitated antelopes’ – two of the most savvy financial behaviours.
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Saver squirrels save a little amount regularly, while agitated antelopes keep a constant watch on their finances.
Zopa said the findings back up its existing customer data, which found that 17 per cent of its retail investors regularly invest small amounts through the year, just like a squirrel.
Other categories included a ‘dog’ – who chooses security in their financial affairs above all else; a ‘chimp’ – who feels guilty about having lots of money; and a ‘lion’ – who sometimes spends compulsively.
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“We’re all a bit different when it comes to managing our money – and we now know that our animal instincts can have a direct impact on our financial decision making,” said Clare Gambardella, Zopa’s chief customer officer.
“At Zopa, we want to help people feel good about their money, and provide them with products and services that work best for them. Hopefully this quiz will allow them to tame or nurture the financial animal within.”
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Professor Erica Fudge added: “We are surrounded by anthropomorphised animals who help us understand more about our own, human culture.
“Take George Orwell’s Animal Farm as an allegory of communism, or the recent film Paddington as a comment on cultural difference, for example. From such works, it is easy to see the appeal of assigning human traits to those found in the animal kingdom – by using animals we are able to speak about human lives, worlds and ideas in a way that reveals something new about them.”