Chart of the Day: Bronze Happier Than Silver

Today’s Chart of the Day has data from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology used by our partners at BlackRock (the company that owns iShares) for a presentation they recently provided to our clients. It shows the happiness levels for Olympic bronze medal versus silver medal winners on a rating of 1 being the lowest to 10 being the happiest. 

Interestingly, the bronze winner scored 7.1 on the happiness meter while the silver winner only scored 4.8, which illustrates the concept of “regret of what could have been.” The silver winner feels that if they had just performed a little better, they would have won the gold, while the bronze medalist is simply grateful to be on the podium. 

This can also relate to investing since investors often look back and kick themselves wishing “if I only had invested in stock XYZ” versus finding happiness in achieving one's goals (making it the podium) by being patient and prudent over the long run.