Gender differences in optimism: Evidence from Yahoo Kimo Taiwan’s business news poll centre

Social Mood is one factor that affects people’s emotions and their perspectives in risk management, which, in turn, influence their final decisions on actual investments. It is believed that women, in general, are more risk aversive (e.g., Bajtelsmit, Bernasek, & Jianakopdos, 1999), more pessimistic (e.g., Jacobsen, Lee, & Marquering, 2008), and have less investment confidence than men (Barber & Odean, 2001). In this study the optimism level of women and men was investigated and compared using data from Yahoo Kimo Taiwan’s Business News Poll Centre. It was found that women were more pessimistic than were men when social mood was negative; when social mood was positive, women’s optimism level varied depending on whether or not the investment was stock-related.