Would you rather finish second or third in a competition?

Andrea Luangrath, associate professor of marketing in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa, says the answer may be surprising for athletes.

Andrea Luangrath is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in Marketing in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Andrea’s research investigates how sensory and nonverbal cues influence consumer attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Her work has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, among others. Andrea was recognized as one of the 2023 Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholars. She has also received recognition from the Society for Consumer Psychology with the 2016 C.W. Park Outstanding Contribution Award as well as with the 2018 Young Contributor Award for the best refereed article by an early career scholar. In 2020, she received the Cannon Scholarship for Teaching Excellence, and in 2021 was the recipient of the Early Career Research Award from the Tippie College of Business. She serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Her research has been featured in the media on NPR, the Economist, Marketplace, and has garnered attention on Reddit Science.

Silver Medalists Appear Less Happy Than Bronze Medalists

In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles won silver in the gymnastics floor exercise, an event many expected her to take Gold. Athletes often dream of gold, but what happens when they fall short and win silver or bronze? My research, conducted with Bill Hedgcock and Raelyn Webster, reveals a surprising pattern: silver medalists often appear less happy than bronze medalists.

We used artificial intelligence technology to analyze hundreds of photos taken during medal ceremonies from past Summer Olympic Games. The algorithm automatically detects facial expressions. Even though the second-place finisher just performed objectively better than the third-place finisher, they appear less happy. Why?

The reason is what psychologists call “counterfactual thinking,” when people contemplate alternative realities of what didn’t, but could have, occurred. There are two main explanations. The first is that these medalists form different points of comparison. Silver medalists form an upward comparison to the gold medalist and think, “I almost won gold…if only I had done something differently.” The bronze medalist, in contrast, forms a downward comparison to the 4^th place finisher. They’re thinking, “at least I won a medal” and are simply happy to be on the podium. The second explanation suggests that medalists form expectation-based counterfactuals. Silver medalists appear less happy because they had higher expectations for their performance, and they fell short.

Time and time again, we see that bronze medalists appear more satisfied with their finish than silver medalists.

Read More:

[APA PsycNet] – Counterfactual thinking and facial expressions among Olympic medalists: A conceptual replication of Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich’s (1995) findings.

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