More and more frequently global literature presents evidence that short information notes for investors are in principal beneficial, but problems result from an unclear and hardly comprehensible risk presentation. In a proposed legislation for the protection of small investors, the German government has now embedded explicitly textual risk warnings, which forms part of the regulation process of gray markets. From a behavioral perspective, proposals for these textual risk warning should also be combined with graphical warnings.
This study aims to analyze the combination of textual and graphical risk warnings given the example of derivates. The respective evaluation of test persons was positive implying that the combination of textual and graphical risk warnings is effective. In addition to reviewing the literature on the effectiveness of warnings on material goods, it has been examined to what extent the described (adverse) effect of warnings regarding advertisements for financial services can be observed. Results from the empirical analysis do not confirm an adverse trust-building effect, but instead the warning effect does work properly, just as initially intended.
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