Moderation effect of pleasure seeking and loss aversion in the relationship between personality traits and risky investment intention

Abstract

Purpose The aim of this study, the moderating effect of pleasure-seeking and loss aversion, was investigated in relation to the big five personality traits with regard to risky investment intentions. Design/methodology/approach In the study, the data was obtained between January and November 2019 via an online survey with convenience sampling. The total number of subjects is 886. The authors used IBM SPSS Statistics for analysis. Exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and discriminant analysis were performed. Findings Significant relationships were found between five personality traits and risky investment intentions. In these relationships, the moderator effect of pleasure-seeking for extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism personality traits was also determined. Besides, investment preferences for choosing “unknown and new investment” against “known and experienced investment”, which is a typical feature of the balloon periods, were modeled with big five personality traits and motivation variables (pleasure-seeking and loss aversion) and the equation was formed. As a result, high accuracy classification success was obtained. Originality/value The study is unique owing to its findings. In addition, general risk aversion and risky investment intention were investigated simultaneously to explain the different findings in the literature regarding the attitude of big five personality traits to risk and personality traits that show consistent approach were identified.