Preferences are of fundamental importance for human behaviour. Nevertheless, our understanding of how preferences are formed and how quickly and under what circumstances they change remains severely limited. We propose to investigate the determinants of preferences through three work packages. The work packages aim to address 1) whether and how quickly the risk tolerance of immigrants adapt to those of the country of immigration; 2) whether violent events may shift risk tolerance, and the main channels driving any changes; and 3) the extent to which the aggregate preference may be determined by the legal environment in that country, and in turn, to what extent the preferences thus determined affect economic outcomes. Collectively, these studies promise to significantly increase our understanding of the determinants of preferences and their effect on economic outcomes.