Abstract
This study explores the interrelations between emotional intelligence, financial literacy, risk attitudes, and investment decisions and how these factors together determine the behaviour of individual investors. It was based on a sample of 674, where high internal consistency is revealed for key constructs, particularly Financial Knowledge and Regulation of Emotion. Significant positive correlations were found between emotional intelligence and financial literacy, especially between the Regulation of Emotion and the Use of Emotion. Thus, the strongest predictor of investment was financial knowledge, followed by emotion regulation. Results from mediation indicate that risk attitude mediated the pathways through the emotional and financial conditions toward investments, indicating how attitudes toward risk are affected through emotional self-appraisal and financial knowledge. These results establish a strong argument for the importance of emotional intelligence and Financial Literacy in investment perceptions and decision-making processes. The implication is that if these competencies were appropriately built through focused educational interventions, better investment decisions could be made with investment for more desirable outcomes. Emotional and financial education efforts should also be integrated into building more informed, strategic, and resilient investment behaviours. Future research may look at how customised training in emotional and financial competencies impacts investment performance for particular populations of investors.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Equity Investments, Financial Literacy, Investment Decisions, Risk Attitude.