![Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) gestures as he talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) as they arrive for a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China's Fujian Province, China September 4, 2017.](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2017-09-04T040300Z_1507287177_RC1797537970_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-BRICS.jpg?quality=75&w=500)
![Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) gestures as he talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) as they arrive for a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China's Fujian Province, China September 4, 2017.](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2017-09-04T040300Z_1507287177_RC1797537970_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-BRICS.jpg?quality=75&w=500)
Research
BPEA | 1984 No. 21984, No. 2
INVESTING in speculative assets is a social activity. Investors spend a substantial part of their leisure time discussing investments, reading about investments, or gossiping about others’ successes or failures in investing. It is thus plausible that investors’ behavior (and hence prices of speculative assets) would be influenced by social movements. Attitudes or fashions seem to fluctuate in many other popular topics of conversation, such as food, clothing, health, or politics. These fluctuations in attitude often occur widely in the population and often appear without any apparent logical reason. It is plausible that attitudes or fashions regarding investments would also change spontaneously or in arbitrary social reaction to some widely noted events.