Morals, money, ethical investing and economic psychology

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of 1 146 ethical investors in the UK. Ethical investing usually means that certain companies are excluded from one's portfolio on non-economic grounds, e.g. because they manufacture armaments, test chemicals on live animals, or have poor pollution records. Is this an example where moral commitment rather than economics is driving economic decision making? Ethical investors were found to be neither cranks nor saints holding both ethical and not so ethical investments at the same time. A case is made that people are prepared to put their money where their morals are although there is no straightforward trade-off between principles and money. A broader analysis than that based on rational economic man is recommended: an economic psychology.