Survey participants were asked about financial decisions, i.e., savings habits and trends. They rated various statements, such as “I`m never satisfied with the second best,” on a five-point scale, ranging from firm agreement to high disagreement. The questionnaire was designed to measure whether participants tended to maximize their decisions, how they believed their decisions would affect the future, and how they received smaller immediate rewards or larger future rewards. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, get advice from the future-oriented ant and the fun-loving grasshopper. Plan for the future, but have fun now. Once the data was collected, the researchers analyzed the numbers and observed trends. For maximizers, the data suggests a positive relationship with their forward-thinking thinking, better money-saving habits, and their concern for the future of others. At the other end of the spectrum, the locust is more likely to be what researchers might call satisfactory (satisfying more is enough = satisfying), or someone who is happy that things are “good enough,” who tends to opt for instant gratification and tends to live from moment to moment. “Maximizers are forward-looking, conscientious, optimistic and satisfied,” she says.
“While a lot of work and thought is devoted to these decisions, maximizing them has beneficial results.” The survey also looked at how participants expected their decisions to affect the future. They were asked to evaluate statements such as “I think about how things might be in the future and I try to influence these things with my daily behavior” and “I often think about saving money for the future,” and to provide information about lifetime savings and ongoing income. The ant and locust, of course, are extreme examples of any type of disposition, and most people have both characteristics. “This tends to give a bell curve, and most people fall in the middle and show aspects of both trends,” Zhu says. Zhu suggests that maximization has positive consequences. In one of Aesop`s famous fables, we get to know the grasshopper and the ant, whose decisions about how they spend their time affect their lives and futures. The jovial grasshopper has fun singing and playing all summer, while the devoted ant struggles to prepare for winter. The ant is what researchers would call a maximizer. A maximizer is someone who makes decisions that, according to himself, affect others and affect them most favorably: he tries to “maximize” the positive and make the best decisions imaginable. Nevertheless, the ant can take into account so many variables that the same tendency to maximize the benefit can lead to difficulties in decision-making. Previous research has suggested that maximizers are happier overall, have higher stress levels, and may regret the decisions they`ve made.
“This decision-making strategy may be more difficult or time-consuming right now, but it seems to have the best long-term outcome, even if it`s not fun,” Zhu says. The most important snack? Zhu says, “Maximization can be a good thing. Previous research has looked at decision difficulties and other negative outcomes, which has added a negative connotation to maximize trends. We try to design it in light of the high standards and beneficial results to reshape the vision of maximization. The results of a recent publication by UConn psychology researcher Susan Zhu and her colleagues add to a growing body of evidence that the ant strategy delaying satisfaction should not be viewed in a negative light, although it may seem less appealing. “What we measure are trends,” Zhu says. “When we ask what people tend to do, they`re pretty stable and can be very good predictors of actual behavior.” Markets have been very generous, offering investors double-digit returns for most of the nineties. But as the seasons change, the happiness of the market will change one day.
I am not trying to predict what the markets will do in the future. I`m also not trying to make a call for the next correction or bear market. The fact is that one day the bear will come, and those who have prepared for it will survive the “days of necessity.” In Aesop`s fable, The Ant and the Locust, the ant collects food throughout the summer to prepare for winter, while the grasshopper spends its time enjoying the happiness of the season. When winter comes, the grasshopper has no food and cannot survive. In the meantime, the ant can live on all the grain it has collected. The moral of the story? “It`s best to be ready for the days of need.” Although it may seem less attractive, the ant`s strategy of delaying satisfaction in the child`s Aesop`s fable should not be viewed in a negative light. The rest of this article is designed to give you conservative strategies for investing your money to protect your wealth when the markets are going to stony: “A satisfied person will make a decision, feel good about making them, and continue,” Zhu explains. To conduct the study, the researchers used Amazon`s Mechanical Turk or MTurk service, where their survey was assigned to hundreds of participants and generated a pool of data. .