This paper studies the relationship between risk propensity, education and financial literacy. Theresults of the empirical investigation confirm the importance of the key explanatory variables ofeducation and financial competence. Since they are both included in the model, the differentroles of each are singled out. In particular, while education turns out to be a factor contributingto raising risk tolerance, financial literacy tends to reduce risk propensity. Risk attitude is evaluated by self-reported assessment and modeled through cumulative logit models. In order to handle anomalous data, M estimators with a bounded influence function are considered.