If you can’t beat ‘em…finish third

Why are bronze medalists so happy?

Andrea Luangrath, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Iowa, and her colleagues recently replicated a 1995 study that suggested Olympic bronze medalists demonstrate greater happiness on the medal podium than those who win silver.

The researchers collected a database of images showing medal ceremonies since 2000, ran the images through software that reads facial expressions – and can differentiate real smiles from fake ones – and found the phenomenon still holds true.

This is counterfactual, of course, because the silver medalist performed better than the bronze medalist and therefore, logically, should be happier. However, one key is who you are comparing yourself to. The silver medalists are likely comparing themselves to the gold medalist and saying to themselves, “Darn, I almost had the gold.” The bronze medalists are likely comparing themselves to the rest of the field and saying to themselves, “Whew, I am relieved I won a medal.”

Laungrath also says the bronze medalists are likely to have exceeded expectations, while silver medalists (who may have had gold in their sights) likely fall short of their expectations.

This is related to a number of other psychological phenomenon in which people evaluate themselves and their possessions in a counterintuitive way.  The Diderot Effect states that you can be perfectly happy with your wardrobe until, for example, you buy a really nice shirt or coat or skirt – and suddenly the rest of your wardrobe looks shabby, which sparks an upward spiral of consumption.

Also, money does buy happiness but it is not the sheer amount of money – it’s who you compare yourself to. Take your current salary and move into a wealthy neighborhood, for example and you likely will be less happy than if you moved into a poorer neighborhood because you compare yourself with your neighbors.

The authors of the recent paper say there are life lessons here for us non-athletes: be mindful of who you compare yourself to, and celebrate those moments when you beat expectations.