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> The psychologists guessed it was because silver medal-winners compare themselves to the athletes who won gold and feel they came up short. By contrast, bronze

• notahacker 10y ago
  It'd be interesting to see the respective happiness of silver and bronze medallists in the context of prior expectations (e.g. betting odds). Presumably silver medallists are more likely to have been the pre-competition favourite to win and bronze medallists are more likely to have not expected to finish on the podium: are silver medallists much happier when they finish behind a massive favourite they never expected to beat, and are bronze medallists significantly less chuffed when the odds suggested they were widely expected to finish somewhere in the top three? Context of the anecdote the article opens with: Lochte - one of the finest swimmers of all time - got overtaken on his relay leg in a race his team was leading at the time and was expected to get a medal in anyway. Hansen was delighted with bronze in his final Olympics having finished fourth and just missed out on a medal in the same event four years earlier.
  • kazinator 10y ago
    You raise the good point that it's possible for someone to have a strong expectation for bronze; to have the sense that they have a reservation in third place. But then the probability comes into effect of what is the likelihood that a given bronze medalist falls into this disappointed category versus the "oh wow, I bronzed against all expectations".