In this paper, we present the results of an online questionnaire among

private German mutual fund investors. In an exploratory nature, we empirically

analyze the differences between three groups: sustainable investors, conventional

investors that are either generally interested or those that are not interested at all to

invest in socially responsible (SR) funds. We provide evidence on motives and

attitudes of these three investor groups, showing that SR fund investors are quite

similar to those interested in investing sustainably and very different from those

who only consider investing conventionally. All three groups agree that sustainable

actions of a company affect its stock price positively. Yet, they all believe that SR

funds perform worse than conventional funds. Nevertheless, some still invest in SR

funds. Consequently, different motives and attitudes are the determining factors

when it comes to making an investment decision. These differences will be

extensively discussed on the following pages.