# Chronotype, Risk and Time Preferences, and Financial Behaviour
## 5 Discussion
### Theoretical Implications  
In general, we extend the literature by adding the knowledge that circadian typologies can influence financial behaviour through individual economic differences (i.e., time preference and financial risk preference), and we provide an informative picture regarding the relationships between them based on inferential statistics. We contribute to this stream of literature by recognizing that morning-type people can inhibit the probability of delinquent credit cards and time preference represents one of the channels through which this occurs. The research expands the present understanding of the functional effect of morningness-eveningness [1] by theoretically and empirically suggesting the relationship between morningness and the likelihood of delinquent credit card payments. We propose and find a direct negative association between morningness and delinquent credit card payment, which makes it clear that the morning chronotype significantly suppresses the likelihood of revolving credit card debt. One possible mechanism for this association is self-control because morningness prompts individuals to be more self-regulated [65], which is negatively associated with non-payment of credit cards and the financial burdens of debt [139]. Another possible mechanism for this link could be through a character inventory. Morning larks are more prone to being persistent [140], conscientious [141], and proactive [33] as compared with evening owls. In particular, proactive people tend to examine, expect, and diminish the effects of potential problems in the future, avoiding them as much as possible [62; 63]. As a result, these people are more likely to avoid delinquent credit card debt. We also hypothesize and the results reveal that time preference partially mediates the relationship between morningness and delinquent credit card payments, thus replicating the association between morning chronotype and time perspective [142; 143], and expanding upon the initial work by using a Chinese sample. Morning larks appear to focus on future target attainment and suspend gratification [65]. The study also extends the knowledge regarding the effect of morning-type on various behaviours that were mainly in the health and education fields [1; 144; 145; 146; 147; 148] to the financial field. An additional highlight is that the mediating role of time preference in the morningness-delinquent credit card payment relationship goes beyond the effects of the demographic predictors that we control for in the analyses. Furthermore, by integrating insights from theories on time preference and credit card borrowing [149; 24; 150; 151], and from theories on income and credit card debt [27], we propose and investigate how income moderates the mediating role of time preference on the morningness-delinquent credit card payments relationship. The findings show that time preference induced by a morning-oriented rhythm result in less likelihood of revolving credit card debt at mean and low levels of income. Specifically, the possible reason for the results regarding users of credit cards with low and mean levels of income is that they are concerned about the level of their financial debt, given the compounding rate of credit card debt. Because their financial situation is vulnerable to high interest rates, which will increase based on the amount of debt [19], another concern of people with low and mean levels of income may be their personal credit over the long term. Given the evidence that income is positively associated with credit card balances at average and low levels of income [27], an increase in income for these groups of people may result in higher credit-card debt. Consequently, to maintain the utility of personal credit, future-oriented people with low and average levels of income will try their best to avoid any default-related behaviour.