Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: The Effect of Affective Experience in Investment Decision Making

目前参与投资行为的美国人比以往任何时候都多--约1.25亿人。尽管投资越来越受欢迎，投资世界中情绪的起伏不断，但情绪对投资行为的实际影响并不是科学研究的主要主题。本研究旨在探讨情绪在投资行为中的作用，研究情绪与投资决策的两个维度：防御-攻击性和反应过度-反应不足之间的关系。具体地说，据预测，积极的情绪可能会促进激进的投资决策，其定义是一种倾向，即在决策过程中主要专注于获得可能的收益，而不是防止可能的损失(例如，将投资集中在一组高回报资产上)，而消极的情感状态将促进防御性投资决策，其定义为主要关注避免可能的损失，而不是在决策过程中获得可能的收益(例如，分散资产或追求低风险资产)。另一种预测是，积极的情绪可能会促进反应不足的反应模式，这种反应模式被定义为在做出决策时对市场信号相对不敏感的倾向(通常对有意义的信号没有反应)，而消极的情绪状态可能会促进反应过度的反应模式，其定义是对市场信号过度敏感的倾向(通常对无意义的信号做出反应)。研究人员计划在一个基于互联网的股票投资游戏中测试这些假设，并结合经验抽样程序。因此，本研究将以一种生态有效的方式探讨情感在决策中的作用。如果成功，将具有理论和实践两方面的影响。通过探索情感体验在决策过程中的关键作用，本研究将丰富过度认知性质的决策文献。它还可以帮助投资者提高他们对情感体验如何、何时以及为什么影响投资决策的理解。

More Americans than ever before - about 125 million - are currently participating in acts of investing. In spite of the growing popularity of investing and of the constant ebbs and flows of emotions in the world of investing, the actual effect of emotion on investment behaviors has not been a major subject of scientific research. The purpose of this project is to explore and examine the role of emotion in investment behaviors.The research focuses on the relationship between affect and two dimensions that can be used to describe investment decision making: defensiveness-aggressiveness and overreaction-underreaction. Specifically, it is predicted that positive feelings may promote aggressive investment decisions, defined as a tendency to focus primarily on obtaining possible gains rather than preventing possible losses in decision making (for example, concentrating investment on a set of high-return assets), whereas negative affective states will foster defensive investment decisions, defined as a tendency to focus primarily on avoiding possible losses rather than obtaining possible gains in decision making (for example, diversifying assets or pursuing low-risk assets). Another prediction is that positive feelings may promote a response pattern of underreaction, defined as a tendency of being relatively insensitive to market signals in making decisions (often failing to respond to meaningful signals), whereas negative affective states may foster a response pattern of over-reaction, defined as a tendency of being overly sensitive to market signals (often responding to meaningless signals). The investigators plan to test these hypotheses in an Internet-based stock investment game combined with an experience-sampling procedure. Thus, the study will investigate the role of affect in decision making in an ecologically valid way. If successful, it will have both theoretical and practical implications. By exploring the critical role of affective experience in decision making process, this research will enrich the decision making literature that has been overly cognitive in nature. It also may help investors enhance their understanding of how, when, and why affective experience influences investment decision making.