Exploring The Effect of Personality and Demographic Characteristics on the Risk-Taking Behavior of Investors

Personality is one of the most important study structures in organizational behavior that can play an important role in predicting human behavior. To describe the differences in personality, emotional, and social behavior, researchers have proposed the theory of five personality factors, known as the Big Five. One of the decisions investors make is to allocate wealth to financial and non-financial assets. The importance of this decision is especially evident in financial assets due to their nature and the need for more knowledge and expertise in this field because the mistakes of investors in this regard can create many risks and challenges for them. The main purpose of this study is to explain the effect of personality traits and demographic features on the risk-taking behavior of investors in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The present research is applied research in terms of goals and descriptive-survey research from the method view. The statistical sample of this research includes 358 investors of the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2019 and 2020. Research data were collected based on Sivarjan's (2018) questionnaire. The results of data analysis using the structural equation modeling method indicate that personality traits including neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have a positive and significant effect on risk-taking behavior. Still, demographic characteristics including gender, age, marital status, and education do not have a significant effect on risk-taking behavior.