Abstract

How do individuals develop information searches under uncertainty? It is a crucial question attracting a number
of studies on investment decision-making. Information on financial measures and advice seeking information are
two usual studied variables in financial investment decision-making. This study extends the information search
aspects to discuss heuristics reliance, a simplified information search method, on individual investment choices.
We further examine the moderating effect of income on our extended information search model. 378 investors
with investment experiment from financial holding companies were surveyed and the multiple-group structural
equation modeling was employed. Reporting on two dimensions of stocks/options and mutual funds investment,
the findings show that individuals with more risk aversion tend to seek more information. Heuristics have a
strong positive influence on financial investment preferences. A mass of digital information through more
advice-seeking information search and heuristics reliance can increase investor interest in mutual fund
investments. We clarify income differences in individual information searches in investment decision-making.
The findings imply that (1) the movement to teach financial students to recognize investor psychology might be
required to be more extensive, and (2) provision of financial information for different income groups may be
needed, and meantime investor psychology is suggested to be taken into serious consideration.

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