Happiness and Olympics 2021 : A Psychological case study
Have you noticed that in Olympics 2021, a bronze medalist is generally more happy than a silver medalist at the end of the game.
Its not an incidental finding, but a proven fact in many research studies after studying reactions of silver medalists vs bronze medalists!
Ideally, a silver medalist should be more happy than the bronze. But, human mind doesn’t work like mathematics.
This happens because of phenomenon of counterfactual thinking.
A concept in psychology in which there is human tendency to create possible alternatives to life events that have already happened, that would be contrary to what happened.
Sliver medalist thinks, “Oh I couldn’t win the gold medal.” Bronze medalist thinks, “At least I got a medal.”
Silver medal is won after losing, but Bronze medal is won after Winning.
“This happens in our life also, we don’t appreciate what we have but feel sad with what we don’t have. Let’s be grateful for our blessings, they far outweigh our problems if we start counting.”
