Abstract: The development and application of cash dividend in China is relatively special. Based on the theory of management overconfidence and dividend catering, this paper introduces the behavioral factors such as management overconfidence and investor dividend demand to establish Logit model and multiple linear regression model, and analyzes the relationship between behavioral factors and cash dividend distribution.The empirical results show that the cash dividend distribution of listed companies in China has irrational characteristics, in which the overconfidence of the management is an important reason for the low level of cash dividend distribution of listed companies, and the limited rational dividend catering behavior of the management results in the unstable characteristics of the direction and intensity of cash dividend payment to some extent. Therefore, the management should continue to deepen the understanding of irrational decision-making behavior, establish a good decision-making mechanism, ensure the proper procedure and standardization of decision-making process, and constantly improve the transparency and stability of dividend policy.

Key words: Key words：behavioral finance;overconfidence;dividends catering theory, dividend distribution