Herd Mentality: The Imitative Crowd
Herd mentality is a phenomenon whereby people tend to follow the crowd without really knowing why they are doing it.
Impact on Investing: Investors driven by herd mentality often jump into investments because everyone else is doing it. This leads to speculative bubbles, where assets become overinflated in price due to mass buying, regardless of their actual value. Classic examples include the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and the housing bubble of the mid-2000s. When the bubble bursts, many investors face significant losses.