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Do personality traits influence investors’ portfolios?

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  • Bucciol, Alessandro
  • Zarri, Luca

Abstract

Based on large-scale survey data from the 2006–2012 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we show that individual portfolio decisions are influenced by a variety of stable traits and facets traditionally investigated in the field of personality psychology. Three personality traits have a significant negative correlation with financial risk taking, as measured by the holding and the amount of stock assets: Agreeableness, Cynical Hostility and Anxiety. For Cynical Hostility a belief-based mechanism seems to be at work, whereas the impact of all the other traits seems to pass through the preferences – rather than the beliefs – channel. Our findings shed new light on the determinants of individuals’ risk taking in the financial domain.

Suggested Citation

  • Bucciol, Alessandro & Zarri, Luca, 2017. "Do personality traits influence investors’ portfolios?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:68:y:2017:i:c:p:1-12
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2017.03.001
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    2. Caterina Cruciani & Gloria Gardenal & Giuseppe Amitrano, 2022. "Risk Tolerance Tools: From Academia to Regulation and Back," Springer Books, in: Understanding Financial Risk Tolerance, chapter 0, pages 39-78, Springer.
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    4. James Banks & Elena Bassoli & Irene Mammi, 2019. "Changing Risk Preferences at Older Ages," Working Papers 2019:01, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
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    7. Gunnar Gutsche & Heike Wetzel & Andreas Ziegler, 2020. "Determinants of individual sustainable investment behavior - A framed field experiment," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202033, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    8. Rui Li & Jing Wu & Shuo Zhang & Siqing Zhang & Yuanyang Wu, 2023. "Social Endowment Insurance and Inequality of the Household Portfolio Choice: The Moderating Effect of Financial Literacy," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, February.
    9. Rupali Misra & Sumita Srivastava & D. K. Banwet, 2019. "Are type B investors efficacious? Exploring role of personality in ambidextrous investment decision-making," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 46(1), pages 27-34, March.
    10. Umair Baig & Batool Muhammad Hussain & Vida Davidaviciene & Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene, 2021. "Exploring Investment Behavior of Women Entrepreneur: Some Future Directions," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, April.
    11. Thomas Dudek & Eric R. Ulm & Ilan Noy, 2021. "Demand for Multi-Year Catastrophe Insurance Contracts: Experimental Evidence for Mitigating the Insurance Gap," CESifo Working Paper Series 9442, CESifo.
    12. Martin Holmén & Felix Holzmeister & Michael Kirchler & Matthias Stefan & Erik Wengström, 2023. "Economic Preferences and Personality Traits Among Finance Professionals and the General Population," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(656), pages 2949-2977.
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    15. Gutsche, Gunnar & Wetzel, Heike & Ziegler, Andreas, 2023. "Determinants of individual sustainable investment behavior - A framed field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 491-508.
    16. Gutsche, Gunnar & Wetzel, Heike & Ziegler, Andreas, 2020. "How relevant are economic preferences and personality traits for individual sustainable investment behavior? A framed field experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224542, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
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    18. Caliendo, Marco & Tübbicke, Stefan, 2019. "Do Start-Up Subsidies for the Unemployed Affect Participants' Well-Being? A Rigorous Look at (Un-)Intended Consequences of Labor Market Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 12755, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Kleine, Jens & Peschke, Thomas & Wagner, Niklas, 2021. "Collectors: Personality between consumption and investment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Portfolio choice; Personality traits; Risk taking; Behavioral finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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