Behavioral Finance in the Digital Era

The chapter presents results of original research undertaken on the propensity to invest and save in the era of rapid development of new technologies and their impact on financial markets. The research examines the behavior and preferences of market participants and their relationship with financial literacy and attitudes toward digitalization of financial services. Research was conducted on international samples of similar sizes from countries chosen as representative - Poland, India, and the US, which adds a country-diversity dimension to the examination of the economic and psychological perspectives. It incorporates the post-pandemic reality and worldwide effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The questionnaire included numerous detailed questions regarding saving and investment decisions while the analysis also included factor analysis giving standardized values for the whole dataset for all three countries. We derived factor variables, which provided a more com- prehensive understanding of the inclinations of individuals toward saving or investment. Results show the current picture of financialization of contemporary societies, accounting for the impact of economic and cultural differences, by comparing data from international samples. Special attention is paid to analyzing financial literacy, the familiarity with digital financial tools, and attitudes toward recommendations made by AI algorithms versus human financial advisors.