
Study found bronze medal-winners tended to be happier than silver medalists - AWildDHHAppears
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2012/08/03/157835076/would-you-rather-win-silver-or-bronze-be-careful-what-you-wish-for
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ericdykstra
There are usually only 2-3 athletes with a significant chance of winning the
gold medal (where 80%+ chance one of those athletes ends up with the gold).

I'd imagine silver ends up being one of those gold competitors more often,
meaning the result was a disappointment relative to their hope. On the other
hand, bronze ends up being one of the competitors from the field more often,
meaning that medalling at all was a great outcome compared to what they
realistically could have expected.

I've mostly been watching Judo this olympics, since it's the sport I'm
focusing on personally, and this observation shows itself on a match-by-match
basis. The competitors with the best chance of winning it all are calm and
already thinking about their next match after a victory. The competitors that
don't have a realistic chance of winning it all are jumping up and down, fist-
pumping, etc in a round-of-32 victory.

I imagine it's really just expectation vs result, which is not really a new or
unique phenomenon at all.

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sangnoir
> There are usually only 2-3 athletes with a significant chance of winning the
> gold medal

I do not know where you got those numbers from, but I don't see how could
possibly be true for any one sport, let alone for _all_ sports with
competitors quire literally from all over the world.

As someone else mentioned in the thread,the silver medalist is likely thinking
"I almost won gold, if only I had done a little better", while the bronze
medalist knows that are a notch away from gold, so they are thinking "I almost
failed to make it to the podium, woohoo!"

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AndrewKemendo
Seinfeld encapsulates this phenomenon perfectly:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9rbwM3omA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9rbwM3omA)

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kevinSuttle
Was wondering how long it would take for this to come up. :)

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keithnz
1 just missed winning, 1 just missed getting nothing.

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clarle
For the 1-1 and head-to-head team events:

Silver: You lost your last match, finishing on a low note.

Bronze: You won your last match, finishing on a high note.

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zck
The last few paragraphs of the article discuss that:

> So the researchers eliminated sports with that playoff structure, and looked
> only at events where gold, silver and bronze medal-winners were decided at
> the same time. They found the pattern held up.

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jedc
Definitely true. I was in Beijing to see a couple friends competing in the
2008 Olympics. (Rowing events; a 2km race that takes ~6.5 minutes).

One friend got bronze, but was <0.25 second from gold. She was ecstatic!
Another friend got silver, and was >1 second from winning. She was massively
sad/depressed. (Part of that was expectations; the woman who got silver was
100% focused on gold and gold only.)

I had heard this saying before (that bronze medalists were happier than silver
medalists), but seeing it up close and personal right after their races was
eye-opening.

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spir
At Amazon years ago, a director once told me "SDE3s are very happy, SDE1s are
just happy to be here, and every SDE2 thinks he should be a SDE3."

~~~
aaron695
I assumed SDE1s were the best and SDE3 were beginners and it was a much more
profound statement :)

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kevindeasis
Here's a photo I saw earlier, kinda reinforcing the idea.

ie: [http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/5024234_700b.jpg](http://img-9gag-
fun.9cache.com/photo/5024234_700b.jpg)

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
The Chinese athletes get a nice reward for getting a gold. And I'm not sure
they have the endorsement opportunities other countries have. The financial
incentives may be the only reason they train.

Anecdote - In Australia, I see very, very few non-westernised Asians
participate in exercise or sports.

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2muchcoffeeman
Counter point [http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-
swimm...](http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-
swimming/chinese-swimmer-fu-yuanhui-wins-bronze-and-millions-of-fans-at-rio-
olympics-20160810-gqprpj.html)

So some of the Chinese are having a good time :D !

~~~
kevindeasis
good stuff!

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alex-
I am reminded of a quote "Happiness is living without expectations"

The favorites in a competition will have much higher expectations than the
rest.

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LordKano
It makes sense. A Bronze medal winner is just happy that he or she is still
taking home something, while a Silver medal winner is tormented that he or she
just missed out on the Gold.

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coldcode
The worst has to be 4th place, you get nothing at all to take home but
memories.

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protomyth
That would have been a much more interesting study. How does coming in 4th
affect the lives of Olympians? You went from "glad I got on the stand" to
"watching the winners".

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LordKano
Fourth has to feel worse than last. If you're last, you just got beaten by
everyone. They were all superior athletes on that day but fourth has to feel
awful.

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chrismcb
In my sport we race for at a time. We typically run a consolation for
positions 5-8. Several people said they would rather finish fifth than fourth,
as they would rather win the consolation than lose the podium.

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taneq
Second is the first loser. Third is the best of the rest.

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protomyth
There was an old video game store blog that had a story on the game
tournaments that were played at the store. The owner gave 1st and 3rd good
prizes (game, joystick, etc.), but gave the second place person a can of pop
to remind them they were "1st loser". Cannot remember the name of that thing.

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KennyCason
Not going to lie, that silver in JiuJitsu has lingered in my brain for a
couple years now :)

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fiftyacorn
I bet silver is happier than 4th place

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Jugurtha
Not related, but I had a hierarchy for grade happiness as a kid. 19/20 was
superior to both 18/20 and 20/20\. 17/20 was better than 16/20 and 18/20.

19 looked sophisticated, a calm mature lion or an eagle flying high. 17 looked
like a very sharp shark or a young powerful wolf.

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michael_fine
So you liked odd numerators? Or unreducible fractions?

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Jugurtha
Prime>Odd>Even..

However, 17 was superior to 18 in my mind aesthetically, not numerically. If
you'd make me choose between receiving $18MM or $17MM, I'm not above receiving
an extra one.

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sehugg
I always thought Michael Collins was more comfortable with his place in
history than Buzz or Neil, too.

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Kip9000
So close, yet so far - Michael Collins

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merkleme
Thats it, I'm no longer going to strive to be the best...just better than the
rest will do.

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MichaelMoser123
with animals you have a similar story: the alpha ape is living a very stressed
life, because he has to maintain his position against all these upshots, while
the position of beta ape is in much more relaxed (i don't know if there is a
gamma ape)

maybe the alpha ape also has some headache because of the demands of his many
wives, but here i am speculating.

