Does Investors' Personality Influence Their Portfolios?

Based on large-scale survey data from the 2006-2012 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) we show that individual portfolio decisions are influenced by a variety of traits and facets traditionally investigated in the field of personality psychology. Two personality traits that taken together depict a self-centered personality profile have the most significant impact on financial risk taking: lower Agreeableness and higher Cynical Hostility predict higher willingness to take risks. The effects of Agreeableness seem to pass through the preferences rather than the beliefs channel. Our findings shed new light on the non-cognitive side of individuals risk taking.