PREFERENZE DI SOSTENIBILITÀ E COMPORTAMENTI DEGLI INVESTITORI RETAIL

The essay explores the role of non-pecuniary factors in investment decisions, highlighting how investors are not guided exclusively by risk and return considerations, but also by expressive, emotional, and value-based motivations. Moving beyond the paradigm of the “rational investor,” it introduces the concept of the “normal investor,” who incorporates cultural, psychological, and social elements into their utility function. In particular, the essay analyses the growing attention paid to sustainable investments (ESG), distinguishing between motivations oriented toward financial value and those based on ethical values. Through a review of the literature and empirical data, the essay shows that preferences for sustainability are heterogeneous and influenced by demographic, cultural, and cognitive factors. It also highlights a gap between stated attitudes and actual behaviour, known as the attitude-behaviour gap, often due to limited sustainable financial literacy, lack of transparency and trust in ESG products, and difficulties in identifying the real impact of investments. The paper also discusses the limitations of current European regulation, which, although it integrates sustainability preferences into the financial advisory process, relies on self-assessment tools that are not very effective and are vulnerable to cognitive biases. A more behavioural approach is proposed, including informative labels and visual tools to facilitate understanding and improve consistency between preferences and choices. Finally, the essay emphasizes the importance of greater regulatory clarity, sustainable financial literacy, and transparency in promoting a financial market genuinely oriented toward sustainability, capable of countering greenwashing and responding effectively to investors’ diverse motivations.