Dates of related message(s) in the Behavioral-Finance group (*): Year/month, d: developed / discussed, i: incidental
(common) Attitude	00/8i - 02/7i + see risk attitude, aversion
The market as a financial food tasting party... A mental attitude is a liking or a dislike / aversion for * something, somebody, an idea, * or also for or against initiating, pursuing or ceasing some behavior. Such an attitude can be * either active (enticing to take an initiative), * or passive (leading to be wary and to avoid a move). What drives attitudes Situations, beliefs, and also happy or gloomy feelings Attitudes can be fed by Events, information, situations Feelings, emotions (themselves often in reaction to events), Reasoning, Remembrance, experience, habits Beliefs Or whatever other internal or external stimulus. Although attitudes are usually conscious cognitive phenomena, they are often - at the same time - driven by feelings and emotions (see emotion). Research in neuroscience has found relations between positive and negative attitude and some brain chemicals and areas associated with pleasure and suffering. Individual attitudes and common attitudes A matter of taste ...or distaste. To have attitudes, tastes and preferences is an innate property of the human mind. They differ between individuals but conformity might spread similar ones within a group or society. Every individual carries its own, rather constant, personal attitudes, and some temporary ones when facing specific situations. A society or group might also have a common attitude (see social, groupthink), People tend to like or dislike the same things than their neighbors. It could be caused by empathy, contamination, fear to be left alone... or because dissenters got fed up with the conformity pressure, gave their key back to the porter and left the neighborhood ;-) In decision making, there is an interplay between individual attitudes and social attitudes. The common attitudes, that tend to be sticky, limit, for good or bad, the independence of individual attitudes. Effects of attitudes Attitudes (as well as beliefs) tend to translate into decisions and behaviors. Behaviors might match attitudes, but not always, as there can be an hesitation to "cross the line" between them. In their turn, those decisions and behaviors influence all fields of personal and social life. Money and investment attitudes and behaviors Money tastes Attitudes, and the related behaviors; obviously have an impact on economic / financial events (supply, demand, price...). An important factor on those areas, and notably in investment, is the risk attitude (from risk aversion to risk seeking : see risk attitude). Attitudes (and behaviors) related to money matters, and particularly to investment, are a key field of research in behavioral economics / behavioral finance (see those phrases).

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