Start Date

11-12-2016 12:00 AM

Description

The Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) mandates stock-listed companies in the U.S. to file regulated disclosures that should allow investors to make an informed decision before exercising ownership in stock. We thus hypothesize that investors do not rely solely upon the essential facts but are also impaired by unconscious and idiosyncratic characteristics in their perception. In fact, such affective processing is suggested by behavioral finance and information processing theory, while empirical evidence in large-scale settings remains rare. As a remedy, this paper statistically locates decisive words in financial news that reflect the complete bandwidth of drivers behind investment decisions. According to our results, the decision-making of investors is significantly influenced by emotionally-charged content and non-informative wording.

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Dec 11th, 12:00 AM

Is Human Information Processing Affected by Emotional Content? Understanding The Role of Facts and Emotions in the Stock Market

The Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) mandates stock-listed companies in the U.S. to file regulated disclosures that should allow investors to make an informed decision before exercising ownership in stock. We thus hypothesize that investors do not rely solely upon the essential facts but are also impaired by unconscious and idiosyncratic characteristics in their perception. In fact, such affective processing is suggested by behavioral finance and information processing theory, while empirical evidence in large-scale settings remains rare. As a remedy, this paper statistically locates decisive words in financial news that reflect the complete bandwidth of drivers behind investment decisions. According to our results, the decision-making of investors is significantly influenced by emotionally-charged content and non-informative wording.