Psychological Traits, Social Influence, and Behavioural Bias in Cryptocurrency Investment Decisions: An SOR-Based Mediation Model

This study explains cryptocurrency investment decisions by integrating personality traits, influencer credibility, and social influence within the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework. Openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, influencer credibility, and social influence are positioned as stimuli; heuristic bias and herding behaviour as organism states; and cryptocurrency investment decision as the response, with risk tolerance acting as a serial mediating mechanism. Data were collected from 367 Indonesian retail cryptocurrency investors through an online survey and analysed using SEM-PLS. The measurement model demonstrates adequate reliability and convergent validity, while discriminant validity is supported by HTMT values below the recommended threshold. The results indicate that personality traits significantly influence heuristic bias, while influencer credibility and social influence increase herding behaviour. Heuristic bias and herding behaviour both positively affect risk tolerance and cryptocurrency investment decisions, with heuristic bias showing the stronger effect. Risk tolerance also positively influences investment decisions and mediates the effects of heuristic bias and herding behaviour. The model explains a substantial portion of the variance in cryptocurrency investment decisions (Adjusted R² = 0.623). These findings extend the SOR framework to cryptocurrency markets by highlighting how psychological traits and social cues shape risk tolerance and ultimately influence investment behaviour in volatile digital asset environments.