Does information transmission alleviate the salience bias of fund managers?

Based on a data set of earthquakes in China, this study reveals that fund managers exhibit increased pessimism for firms vulnerable to seismic hazards, leading to a marked decrease in net buy volume. Such pessimism is proven to be biased, that is aligned with the salience theory. We further identify the pivotal role of information transmitted through corporate site visits and online interaction in curbing such unwarranted pessimism among fund managers. Information collected through corporate site visits not only alleviates the pessimism of fund managers who conduct site visits by themselves but also benefits fund managers who are not directly involved in site visits. Corporate online interaction serves as the complementary role for site visits in attenuating fund managers' undue pessimism. Our findings contribute to the broader psychology and finance literature on the effect of salience bias on investors' behavior and fill the gap in the literature on how to overcome behavioral bias.