How the Bronze Medallist’s Mindset Helps Us Manage Life’s Unpredictable Outcomes
Counterfactual thinking helps embrace acceptance
The human mind’s quirks challenge conventional wisdom about performances and responses. Sometimes we think in absolute terms. On other occasions, we think in relative terms.
For example, the higher the performance, the happier the response is received wisdom. Like for example, an Olympic silver medallist should be happier than a bronze medallist. This does not always happen. Human psychology defies straitjackets.
Our happiness or sadness about our performance depends on who we compare ourselves with. We feel sad when we look up to the winners who performed better than us and experience happiness when we view losers who failed to match our performance.
Now that the pandemic-hit Tokyo Summer Olympics has started, let’s examine how the past Olympic winners reacted when they won one of the three medals on offer- gold, silver and bronze- corresponding to the first, second and third positions.
Bronze medallists were happier than silver medallists
If we trust conventional wisdom, the silver medallist should be happier than the bronze medallist. Studies have made conventional…
