Where behavioural finance elevates your investment strategy
Discovering behavioural finance
Behavioural finance is the application of psychology to finance. It contrasts with classical financial theory by considering individuals not as purely rational beings, but as people influenced by their emotions and by cognitive biases. Through practical experiments and real‑life scenarios, researchers have demonstrated the existence of these biases and their effects.
Investing with clarity: when finance meets psychology
Behind every financial decision, however rational it may appear, lie cognitive biases supported by extensive academic research. These unconscious distortions can shape our wealth‑management and investment choices without us even realising it.
Our belief: placing people at the heart of finance
At Societe Generale Private Banking, we place the human dimension at the centre of our support. For more than ten years, we have integrated behavioural finance into our approach to help you make informed decisions that take account of your perceptions, your goals, and your preferences.
A tailor‑made approach, aligned with your profile
We implement a bespoke approach that incorporates a personalised decision‑making process. This is why we take into account key parameters such as:
- your risk tolerance,
- your sensitivity to volatility,
- your investment horizon,
- your acceptance of illiquidity.
These elements enable us to design a personalised strategy, which translates into:
- an asset allocation consistent with our Dialogue & Asset Allocation tool,
- a wealth structure that remains faithful to the defined guidelines.
Turning complexity into clarity
Our ambition is simple: to turn complexity into an advantage, ensuring that every choice is clear, considered, and perfectly aligned with your goals. Beyond the quality of our solutions and our technical expertise, we support you in:
- taking perspective when faced with emotion,
- diversifying your investments,
- maintaining a long‑term outlook,
- understanding investment mechanisms so as to limit the influence of biases.
Regular, in‑depth discussions with our teams allow you to align financial decisions with your life objectives and make informed choices.
There is no simple segmentation, given the breadth of behavioural finance.
Nevertheless, biases can be grouped into four categories:
Cognitive biases, which can be summarised as patterns of reasoning that deviate from logical or rational thinking (in information processing, probability assessment, or the use of these two elements);
Emotional biases, which introduce a distortion into the decision‑making process;
Social biases, which encompass the influence of interactions with others, such as herd behaviour;
Decision‑making biases, consisting of automatic, intuitive and rapid mental operations that give rise to distortions in choices.
Although the term bias is used to describe these scientific insights, these tendencies, often unintentional, are not necessarily negative; they can also be beneficial (for example, loss aversion may prove protective ahead of a market downturn).
We embed the psychology of financial decision‑making into our conversations to enable our clients to make even more informed choices and achieve their wealth and financial objectives.
Investment Advisor and Behavioural Finance Expert Societe Generale Private Banking
Study: investment behaviour in France
How behavioural biases shape French investors’ decisions
In a context where the French save a great deal but still invest relatively little, the OpinionWay survey conducted for BlackRock in partnership with Societe Generale Private Banking provides unprecedented insight into the mechanisms that guide – and sometimes hinder – their financial decisions.
For the first time, a large-scale study simultaneously analyses their level of financial literacy and the often invisible influence of behavioural biases – risk aversion, herd behaviour, recency, anchoring, familiarity… all of which shape their investment choices. More than 80% of French people identify with at least one situation illustrating a behavioural bias, and most acknowledge that these biases can negatively impact financial decision-making. The findings are clear: understanding these unconscious reflexes has become essential to help individuals make decisions with greater confidence, in line with their objectives and more closely connected to the real economy.
Learn more in videos
Understanding the main behavioural biases
Edouard Camblain, Investment Adviser and expert in Behavioural Finance at Societe Generale Private Banking, speaks with Bettina Mazzocchi, Co‑Head of the EMEA Wealth team within Multi‑Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS) at BlackRock, to explain the main behavioural biases that can influence the financial decisions of any investor.
(Videos available in French only)
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