We study the effect of information aggregation on individual investors’ risk-taking behavior in two experiments, each having three different treatments. Subjects in the control group were given hypothetical returns for both the risk-free and the risky asset. Subjects in the account group were...

In a panel survey of individual investors, we show that investors’ second-order beliefs—their beliefs about the return expectations of other investors—influence investment decisions. Investors who believe others hold more optimistic stock market expectations allocate more of their own...