Olympic Medalists

In an often-cited study about counterfactuals, Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich (1995) found that bronze medalists appeared happier than silver medalists in television coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Medvec et al. [blank] that bronze medalists compared themselves to 4th place finishers, [blank] silver medalists compared themselves to gold medalists. These counterfactuals were the most salient because they were either qualitatively different (gold vs. silver) or categorically different (medal vs. no medal) from what [blank] occurred. Drawing on archival data and experimental studies, we show that Olympic athletes (among others) are more likely to make counterfactual comparisons based on their [blank] expectations, consistent with decision affect theory. Silver medalists are more likely to be disappointed because their personal expectations are higher than [blank] of bronze medalists.