The effect of cognitive factors on decision-making behavior with the moderating role of cryptocurrency investment

The main objective of this thesis is to examine whether cognitive factors affect investor decisions and behaviours and their impact levels. As a result of the literature review, cognitive factors are identified as representativeness bias, herd bias, anchor bias, and availability bias. In the literature section of the thesis, cognitive biases, previous studies on this subject, and crypto assets are included. In the methodology section, the aforementioned dependent and independent variables are defined. In the research, a questionnaire was used as a data collection method, and the data were accessed online. The sample of the study consisted of cryptocurrency ınvestors ın Lıbya. SPSS software was used to analyse the data in the study. The factor analysis method was used as the analysis method. Following the suitability of the data for factor analysis, the dimensions were determined. The regression analysis method was applied to determine the relationship between the dimensions formed as dependent and independent variables, and the relationships were evaluated by testing all assumptions of the method. According to the results obtained, it was concluded that the decisions made by investors in crypto asset investments in Libya are affected by cognitive factors such as representativeness bias, herd bias, anchor and availability bias, and that there is a statistically significant and high relationship with all cognitive factors. In summary, this thesis study shows that the financial investors in Libya are significantly affected by emotional and cognitive factors in cryptoasset investments and make investment decisions in a non-rational manner. At the same time, this research also suggests that even cryptocurrency ınvestors can make more rational decisions by increasing their financial literacy levels. Keywords: cognitive actors, crypto asset investment, investor behaviour