Abstract:
This research study analyzed the effects of personal variables like gender, age and
education and big five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism) on investment decisions (specifically on risk taking,
socially responsible investment and return preference). Most of the findings were in
harmony with the research findings of other researchers in finance literature however,
few of the results were not significant and were contrary to the previous findings. The
findings suggest that personality traits have a relationship with the kind of investments
individuals make in the stock market. Different personality traits are associated various
facts of investment decisions, for example, agreeableness may explain the risk taking
attitude, socially responsible investment and return preference of the individual investors
while they make stock purchase decisions. Likewise, gender and marital status also
significantly influence the investment decisions specifically the risk taking attitude of the
investors. In other words, males tend to engage in investments that require high risk
taking as compared to females who tend to be less risk taking in their investment
decisions. Finally, individuals who are not married tend to be high risk takers as
compared to those who are leading a married life.
