Students who rated themselves as stronger complex thinkers also reported more favourable financial habits and attitudes, but they did not necessarily know more about money. That distinction emerged in research involving 122 Mexican university students.
What researchers studied
The researchers examined whether perceived complex-thinking capabilities relate to financial literacy among students at four public and private higher-education institutions in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City.
The mixed-methods study combined online questionnaires with focus-group discussions. Students, aged 17 to 24, answered financial knowledge questions and reported their financial behaviour, attitudes and perceived ability to think critically, systematically, scientifically and innovatively.
Participation was voluntary rather than based on a nationally representative sample. The researchers also compared students attending public and private institutions.
What they found
Financial behaviour was positively correlated with all four perceived thinking dimensions. The strongest reported association was with innovative thinking (Spearman’s rho = 0.42), followed by scientific thinking (0.39), systemic thinking (0.37) and critical thinking (0.25).
Financial attitudes also showed several positive relationships. However, none of the four thinking dimensions was significantly associated with financial knowledge; the absolute correlations were no greater than 0.09.
Private-university students scored slightly higher on the overall financial-literacy measure, but the difference was not statistically significant. Descriptive differences between male and female students were also too small to support a firm conclusion.
What it means
Knowing financial facts and putting them into practice are different skills. The results suggest that confidence in handling complex problems may accompany everyday money management more closely than it accompanies knowledge of interest, credit or inflation.
For financial educators, the study supports testing learning approaches that consider both behavioural decisions and conceptual understanding. It does not show that training complex thinking will cause students to manage money better.
Important limitation
The sample was small and recruited by convenience. Complex thinking was self-rated rather than objectively tested, while two financial-literacy measures showed weak internal consistency. Socioeconomic background and previous financial education were not controlled, making causal or national conclusions inappropriate.
Source Information
Study: Does complex thinking translate into financial literacy? Evidence from university students in Mexico
Authors: Azeneth Patino, Marco Cruz-Sandoval, María-Soledad Ramírez-Montoya and Gerardo Ibarra-Vázquez
Journal / Source: Frontiers in Education
Published: 26 October 2026
