In one of Aesop\u2019s famous fables, we are introduced to the grasshopper and the ant, whose decisions about how to spend their time affect their lives and future. The jovial grasshopper has a blast all summer singing and playing, while the dutiful ant toils away preparing for the winter.<\/p>\n
Findings in a recent publication by UConn psychology researcher Susan Zhu and colleagues add to a growing body of evidence that, although it may seem less appealing, the ant\u2019s gratification-delaying strategy should not be viewed in a negative light.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision strategy can be harder or more time-consuming in\u00a0the moment, but it appears to have the best outcome in the long run, even if it isn\u2019t fun,\u201d says Zhu.<\/p>\n
The ant is what the researchers would call a maximizer. A maximizer is someone who makes decisions that they expect will impact themselves and others most favorably: they seek to \u201cmaximize\u201d the positive and make the best choices imaginable. Yet the ant may consider so many variables that the same tendency to maximize benefit may lead to difficulty in making decisions. Previous research suggested this, with maximizers being less happy overall, having higher stress levels, and possibly regretting decisions they made.<\/p>\n
Zhu suggests that maximizing has beneficial consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaximizers are forward thinking, conscientious, optimistic, and satisfied,” she says. “Though a lot of work and thought go into those decisions, maximizing has beneficial outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surviving the winter perhaps?<\/p>\n
On the other end of the spectrum, the grasshopper is more of what researchers might refer to as a satisficer (satisfy plus suffice = satisfice), or someone who will be happy with things being \u201cgood enough,\u201d who tends to opt for instant gratification and tends to live moment to moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cA satisficer will make a decision, feel good about making it, and move on,\u201d says Zhu.<\/p>\n
The ant and the grasshopper are of course extreme examples of each dispositional type, and most people exhibit both qualities. \u201cThere tends to be a bell curve and most people fall towards the middle and exhibit aspects of both tendencies,\u201d Zhu says.<\/p>\n
To conduct the study, the researchers used Amazon\u2019s Mechanical Turk or MTurk service, where their survey was given to hundreds of participants, generating a pool of data.<\/p>\n
Survey takers were asked questions regarding financial decisions, namely savings habits and tendencies. They\u00a0rated various statements, such as \u201cI never settle for second best,\u201d on a five-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The questionnaire was designed to gauge whether participants tended to maximize their decisions, how they felt their decisions would impact the future, and how they viewed smaller immediate rewards or larger future rewards.<\/p>\n
The survey also looked at how participants expected their decisions to affect the future. They were asked to rate statements like, \u201cI consider how things might be in the future and try to influence those things with my day to day behavior,\u201d and \u201cI often think about saving money for the future,\u201d and to provide information about lifetime savings amounts and current income.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are measuring are tendencies,” says Zhu. “When we ask what people tend to do, they\u2019re pretty stable and can be pretty good predictors for actual behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once data was gathered, researchers crunched the numbers and observed trends. With maximizers, the data suggested a positive relationship with their future-oriented thinking, better money-saving habits, and concern for the future of others.<\/p>\n
The main takeaway? Zhu says, \u201cMaximizing can be a good thing. Previous research looked at decision-making difficulty and other negative outcomes, and that added a negative connotation to\u00a0maximizing tendencies. We\u2019re trying to frame it in light of the high standards and the beneficial outcomes, to help reshape the view of maximizing.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter where you fall on the spectrum, take advice from both the forward thinking ant and<\/em> the fun-loving grasshopper. Plan for the future, but also have some fun now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although it may seem less appealing, the ant’s strategy of delaying gratification in the children’s fable by Aesop should not be viewed in a negative light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":127633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2076,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2093],"class_list":["post-127597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-research","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 07:04:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127597"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127770,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127597\/revisions\/127770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/127633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127597"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=127597"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=127597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}