An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics

Behavioral finance argues that individuals are not rational while making investment decisions due to some psychological, exogenous, and other factors. As a result, they end up making poor financial decisions. This study was conducted to determine factors that individual investors are exposed to whil...

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Main Authors: Batuhan Medetoğlu, Arif Saldanlı
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Istanbul University Press 2022-01-01
Series:İktisat Politikası Araştırmaları Dergisi
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Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/736D4B3064084752B24B7F37BEB7DBF3
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author Batuhan Medetoğlu
Arif Saldanlı
author_facet Batuhan Medetoğlu
Arif Saldanlı
author_sort Batuhan Medetoğlu
collection DOAJ
description Behavioral finance argues that individuals are not rational while making investment decisions due to some psychological, exogenous, and other factors. As a result, they end up making poor financial decisions. This study was conducted to determine factors that individual investors are exposed to while making investment decisions. A questionnaire was handed over to 532 participants as part of the study. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to conduct the analysis. Questionnaire responses were first subjected to factor analysis, and later, reliability analysis was conducted to determine which factors were the most effective in participants’ investment decisions. The reliability levels of the factors in the study were observed to be above the determined limits. The factors were shown to exhibit a significant and positive relationship. According to the results obtained, factors that affect investor decisions were grouped into three categories, namely, exogenous factors and herd behavior; cognitive illusions; and demographic and socioeconomic factors. Exogenous factors and herd behavior demonstrate situations that occur independently of investors, cognitive illusions demonstrate how psychological factors affect investors, and demographic and socioeconomic factors demonstrate how characteristics influence investors’ attitudes. Consequently, situations that affect investment decisions of investors were also grouped under three factors and findings concerning investor behaviors were explained. It was determined that the factors obtained in the study reflect and explain the situations that individuals are exposed to while making investment decisions. A majority of the participants are in the same age range, which is one of the study’s limitations. The use of diverse age groups in future research is suggested.
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series İktisat Politikası Araştırmaları Dergisi
spelling doaj-art-9e6a6d64618749a281bb2b4f39726e9f2025-08-20T02:15:19ZengIstanbul University Pressİktisat Politikası Araştırmaları Dergisi2148-38762022-01-0191537410.26650/JEPR936253123456An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and HeuristicsBatuhan Medetoğlu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8400-1232Arif Saldanlı1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-9510İstanbul Ayvansaray Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkiyeİstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul, TürkiyeBehavioral finance argues that individuals are not rational while making investment decisions due to some psychological, exogenous, and other factors. As a result, they end up making poor financial decisions. This study was conducted to determine factors that individual investors are exposed to while making investment decisions. A questionnaire was handed over to 532 participants as part of the study. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program was used to conduct the analysis. Questionnaire responses were first subjected to factor analysis, and later, reliability analysis was conducted to determine which factors were the most effective in participants’ investment decisions. The reliability levels of the factors in the study were observed to be above the determined limits. The factors were shown to exhibit a significant and positive relationship. According to the results obtained, factors that affect investor decisions were grouped into three categories, namely, exogenous factors and herd behavior; cognitive illusions; and demographic and socioeconomic factors. Exogenous factors and herd behavior demonstrate situations that occur independently of investors, cognitive illusions demonstrate how psychological factors affect investors, and demographic and socioeconomic factors demonstrate how characteristics influence investors’ attitudes. Consequently, situations that affect investment decisions of investors were also grouped under three factors and findings concerning investor behaviors were explained. It was determined that the factors obtained in the study reflect and explain the situations that individuals are exposed to while making investment decisions. A majority of the participants are in the same age range, which is one of the study’s limitations. The use of diverse age groups in future research is suggested.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/736D4B3064084752B24B7F37BEB7DBF3financebehavioral financeinvestment decisionsanomaliesheuristic
spellingShingle Batuhan Medetoğlu
Arif Saldanlı
An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
İktisat Politikası Araştırmaları Dergisi
finance
behavioral finance
investment decisions
anomalies
heuristic
title An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
title_full An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
title_fullStr An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
title_full_unstemmed An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
title_short An Empirical Study of Individuals’ Investment Decision Anomalies and Heuristics
title_sort empirical study of individuals investment decision anomalies and heuristics
topic finance
behavioral finance
investment decisions
anomalies
heuristic
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/736D4B3064084752B24B7F37BEB7DBF3
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