Comparing yourself to others can kill the joy of making money, but it doesn't really matter when you're losing it.
This study of investors found that winning feels worse when others win more, but losing does not feel worse when others lose less. This 'loss-upward resilience' suggests we are uniquely shielded from the pain of social comparison only when we are already in the red.
Gains Are Fragile, Losses Are Resilient: Domain-Asymmetric Effects of Social Comparison on Subjective Valuation
PsyArXiv · 4pe5z_v1
People evaluate outcomes relative not only to private reference points but also to others’ outcomes. Yet whether social comparison simply intensifies evaluation in parallel across gains and losses, or reshapes subjective value more selectively, remains unclear. The present study tested this in a repeated-measures investment paradigm with 523 experienced investors, each of whom evaluated 15 scenarios before and after comparison information was introduced. Own returns ranged from +6% to +32% (gain