Households’ investment decisions are driven by their risk preferences. How do social disruptions reshape households’ risk preferences? Using a natural experiment of the Cultural Revolution in China, the country’s largest political turmoil that completely disrupted the lives of millions of people, we use a difference-in-differences approach to show that households whose eldest member lived in counties more exposed to this turmoil tend to invest in stock markets more. Interestingly, individuals from the regions that experienced government shutdowns and civilian officials’ deaths are more risk averse, while their counterparts (i.e., the “lucky” survivors) exhibit greater risk-loving attitudes and tend to engage more in stock investing. The results suggest that households’ risk preferences depend on how much they suffer from the turmoil. Our findings are robust to alternative explanations such as households’ education attainment, cultural beliefs, and opportunism. This study sheds light on the long-run impact of social disruptions on households’ risk preferences.