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Personality differences and investment decision-making

Author

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  • Jiang, Zhengyang
  • Peng, Cameron
  • Yan, Hongjun

Abstract

We survey thousands of affluent American investors to examine the relationship between personalities and investment decisions. The Big Five personality traits correlate with investors' beliefs about the stock market and economy, risk preferences, and social interaction tendencies. Two personality traits, Neuroticism and Openness, stand out in their explanatory power for equity investments. Investors with high Neuroticism and those with low Openness tend to allocate less investment to equities. We examine the underlying mechanisms and find evidence for both standard channels of preferences and beliefs and other nonstandard channels. We show consistent out-of-sample evidence in representative panels of Australian and German households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Zhengyang & Peng, Cameron & Yan, Hongjun, 2024. "Personality differences and investment decision-making," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121634, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:121634
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Richard T. Carson & Derrick H. Sun & Yixiao Sun, 2024. "Random Utility Models with Skewed Random Components: the Smallest versus Largest Extreme Value Distribution," Papers 2405.08222, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    investor heterogeneity; personality; social interaction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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