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emotion
The silver medalist is sadder than the bronze.
A 1995 study found that Olympic silver medalists showed significantly less happiness than bronze winners.
Silver winners focus on the counterfactual 'I almost got gold,' while bronze winners focus on 'I almost didn't win anything.' Your happiness is determined by the imaginary outcome you compare to your reality.
You make yourself miserable by thinking about what did not happen.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich, 1995
- What the check found
- The study (Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich, 1995) is a seminal piece of social psychology research on counterfactual thinking.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.