IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v4y2016i1p1-d61757.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Calisthenics with Words: The Effect of Readability and Investor Sophistication on Investors’ Performance Judgment

Author

Listed:
  • Xiao Carol Cui

    (School of Accountancy, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China)

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the SEC has advocated for financial disclosures to be in “plain English” so that they would be more readable and informative. Past research has shown that high readability is related to more extreme investor judgments of firm performance. Processing fluency is the prevalent theory to explain this: higher readability increases the investor’s subconscious reliance on the disclosure, so positive (negative) news leads to more positive (negative) judgments. The relationship may not be so simple, though: drawing on research from cognitive psychology, I predict and find that investor financial literacy simultaneously influences investor decision-making, and that it has an interactive effect with readability. When presented with financial disclosure containing conflicting financial information, investors with higher financial literacy make more negative judgments than investors with low financial literacy when the disclosure is easy to read, but the effect becomes insignificant when the disclosure becomes difficult to read. This effect is moderated by a comprehension gap between the two investor groups. Financial literacy and readability interact to impact both how and how well the investor processes financial information.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiao Carol Cui, 2016. "Calisthenics with Words: The Effect of Readability and Investor Sophistication on Investors’ Performance Judgment," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:4:y:2016:i:1:p:1-:d:61757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/4/1/1/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/4/1/1/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elliott, W.B. & Hodge, F. & Kennedy, J.J. & Pronk, M., 2007. "Are MBA students a good proxy for nonprofessional investors?," Other publications TiSEM 20271f1d-d385-4122-a175-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    3. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:2:y:2007:i::p:371-379 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kristina Rennekamp, 2012. "Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions to Disclosure Readability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1319-1354, December.
    6. Lisa Koonce & Jeffrey Miller & Jennifer Winchel, 2015. "The Effects of Norms on Investor Reactions to Derivative Use," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 1529-1554, December.
    7. Hun‐Tong Tan & Elaine Ying Wang & Bo Zhou, 2014. "When the Use of Positive Language Backfires: The Joint Effect of Tone, Readability, and Investor Sophistication on Earnings Judgments," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 273-302, March.
    8. Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2003. "Limited attention, information disclosure, and financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 337-386, December.
    9. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    10. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Riley & Eileen Taylor, 2018. "The Inconsistent Effects of Plain English Disclosures on Nonprofessional Investors’ Risk Judgments," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Fahd Alduais & Nashat Ali Almasria & Abeer Samara & Ali Masadeh, 2022. "Conciseness, Financial Disclosure, and Market Reaction: A Textual Analysis of Annual Reports in Listed Chinese Companies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fahd Alduais & Nashat Ali Almasria & Abeer Samara & Ali Masadeh, 2022. "Conciseness, Financial Disclosure, and Market Reaction: A Textual Analysis of Annual Reports in Listed Chinese Companies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    3. Samuel B. Bonsall & Brian P. Miller, 2017. "The impact of narrative disclosure readability on bond ratings and the cost of debt," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 608-643, June.
    4. Eddy Cardinaels & Stephan Hollander & Brian J. White, 2019. "Automatic summarization of earnings releases: attributes and effects on investors’ judgments," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 860-890, September.
    5. Danial Hemmings & Lynn Hodgkinson & Gwion Williams, 2020. "It's OK to pay well, if you write well: The effects of remuneration disclosure readability," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 547-586, May.
    6. Cardinaels, Eddy & Hollander, Stephan & White, Brian, 2019. "Automatic summarization of earnings releases : Attributes and effects on investors’ judgments," Other publications TiSEM 721f64f4-033e-453b-a3e7-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Sau Yu Ong & Robyn Moroney & Xinning Xiao, 2022. "How do key audit matter characteristics combine to impact financial statement understandability?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 805-835, March.
    8. Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir & Boubaker, Sabri & Ding, Xiaoya (Sara), 2021. "Annual report readability and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    10. Jaeschke, Reemda & Lopatta, Kerstin & Yi, Cheong, 2018. "Managers’ use of language in corrupt firms’ financial disclosures: Evidence from FCPA violators," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 170-192.
    11. Soliman, Marwa & Ben-Amar, Walid, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility orientation and textual features of financial disclosures," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    13. Quan Gan & Buhui Qiu, 2021. "The information content of 10‐K file size change," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 1251-1285, December.
    14. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Leone, Andrew J. & Miller, Brian P. & Rennekamp, Kristina, 2017. "A plain English measure of financial reporting readability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 329-357.
    15. Nazari, Jamal A. & Hrazdil, Karel & Mahmoudian, Fereshteh, 2017. "Assessing social and environmental performance through narrative complexity in CSR reports," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 166-178.
    16. Jingyu Gao & F.G.H. (Frank) Hartmann & Min Zhang & Yasheng Chen, 2023. "The impact of CSR performance and CSR disclosure readability on investors’ earnings estimates," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1157-1186, April.
    17. Chen, Zhenhua & Loftus, Serena, 2019. "Multi-method evidence on investors’ reactions to managers’ self-inclusive language," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Kristina Rennekamp, 2012. "Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions to Disclosure Readability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1319-1354, December.
    19. Shuyu Zhang & Xuanyu Zhou & Huifeng Pan & Junyi Jia, 2019. "Cryptocurrency, confirmatory bias and news readability – evidence from the largest Chinese cryptocurrency exchange," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(5), pages 1445-1468, March.
    20. Bhardwaj, Arti & Imam, Shahed, 2019. "The tone and readability of the media during the financial crisis: Evidence from pre-IPO media coverage," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 40-48.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:4:y:2016:i:1:p:1-:d:61757. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.