Impact of social influence on retirees' investment perception in the Zanzibar Urban West region

This study examines how social influence affects retirees’ investment perception. With the shadow of Prospect theory, the study employed descriptive research design-based quantitative method. The targeted population was retirees from Zanzibar Urban West region. The sample was drawn from the total population of 7,773 residing in urban region. Using the Krejecie and Morgan table of a finite population, the sample size of 365 was obtained. However, the analysis was done on 283 retirees who had completed and returned the questionnaire to the researcher. The study was conducted in the Urban West region in Zanzibar using a survey method. Data were collected using administered questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive quantitative methods by SPSS software. The findings reveal that Social Influence (SOI) significantly affects the retirees’ Investment Perception (IPC). The study also found gender differences in impact, with social influence affecting more female retirees than male retirees. The paper concludes that social influence changes retirees’ investment perception. The study recommends that financial institutions develop financial training programs to help retirees enhance their investment perceptions, which encourages optimal investment decisions, so as to decide to invest through financial skills rather than social factors.