Dark financial profile leading to debt traps – A theoretical framework

This paper proposes a theoretical framework in an attempt to better explain the behaviours of some consumers of financial products during market crises. We review the established notions of irrationality and deception, and then add the construct of disconnection from financial needs, goals and preferences. We propone that these three concepts, respectively, cognitive, behavioural and emotional in nature, create a dark financial profile (DFP) by which these consumers unwittingly build debt. We use bibliometrics to highlight the current gap in the scholarly domains of interest and provide market examples of how the DFP likely deploys in the marketplace. This is the first article to use disconnection in such a context, and to improve the understanding of consumer behaviours in regard to disconnection, irrationality, deception and debt. Thus, we enrich the literature on debt, which has at times ignored the role of the combination of these constructs. We investigate avenues of research for developing further our emerging framework, especially on the notion of disconnection, and suggest that this effort may assist in preparing effective marketing of financial education programs and improving lending practices.