La disonancia cognitiva y trampa de la memoria en decisiones de Inversión: caso colombiano

Abstract

The following document is the result of a research project from a Corporate Behavioral Finance viewpoint, a relevant field in the finance world since 2002 but so far unexplored in Colombia. This discipline differs from the economic principle that assumes human rationality in financial decision making process, as they may be influenced by cognitive and emotional biases that the orthodox theory ignores. This research project seeks to discover, from the literature review and through primary data analysis, the presence of behavioral elements on the investment decision making process. In particular, cognitive dissonance, availability bias and confirmation bias were analyzed. Primary data was gathered by sending a survey among Colombian investors categorized as young investors and experienced investors. After the filter was applied, a sample of 142 respondents was selected for the analysis. The main findings were that cognitive dissonance and availability bias were seen to affect young investors more than experienced investors. Also, in both categories, the biases analyzed mildly influence investment decisions.