At the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, a desperate Alexandra Trusova won silver and immediately declared“I won’t ever skate again.” Swimmer Michael Phelps showed a combination of frustration and disappointment on the 2012 Olympic Games in London, when he added a silver medal to his collection of gold medals. At the identical Games, gymnast McKayla Maroney won grim facial features on the winner's podium went viral.
These staring moments reveal a surprising pattern: silver medalists often appear less blissful than bronze medalists.
In a 2021 study we conducted with our research associate Raelyn Rouner, We investigated whether there may be any truth to this phenomenon.
Recognizing disappointment
When athletes from world wide gather in Paris this summer for the thirty third Olympiad, a lot of them might be on the opening ceremony dreaming of gold.
But what happens if these goals are narrowly missed?
We examined photographs of 413 Olympic athletes taken during medal ceremonies between 2000 and 2016. The photos come from the Olympic World Library And Getty Images and included athletes from 67 countries. We even have Sports Illustrated's Predictions for the Olympic finalsbecause we desired to see if the facial expressions of athletes modified after they exceeded expectations or performed below average.
To analyze the photos, we used a type of artificial intelligence that recognizes facial expressions. By using AI to quantify facial muscle activation, we were in a position to eliminate the necessity for research assistants. to manually encode the expressionsthereby reducing the potential of personal bias. The algorithm identified the shapes and positions of the athletes' mouth, eyes, eyebrows, nose and other facial parts that indicate a smile.
Even though the runners-up performed objectively higher than the third-place finishers, the AI found that the bronze medalists appeared happier on average than the silver medalists.
Close miss
So why does this occur?
The answer has to do with what psychologists call “counterfactual considering”, which refers to when people imagine things that didn’t occur but could have happened.
Against this background, there are two principal explanations for this medal phenomenon.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
First, silver medalists and bronze medalists form different points of comparison – so-called category-based counterfactual statements.
Silver medalists make an upward comparison and picture a unique consequence – “I almost won gold.” Bronze medalists, then again, make a downward comparison: “At least I won a medal” or “It might have been worse.”
The direction of this comparison shows how relative luck will be. For silver medalists, almost winning gold is a cause for disappointment, while for a bronze medalist, simply standing on the winner's podium is a source of satisfaction.
We also indicate a second reason for this phenomenon: medal winners form something that expectation-based counterfactual statements.
Some silver medalists are dissatisfied because they expected higher performances. Maroney's famous grimace is one example. Sports Illustrated predicted that she would win the gold medal by a big marginIn other words, anything lower than gold was an enormous disappointment for Maroney.
We found evidence consistent with each category-based and expectation-based counterfactual accounts of Olympic medalists' facial expressions. Not surprisingly, our evaluation also found that gold medalists smiled way more often than the opposite two medalists, and that folks who performed higher than expected also smiled more often, no matter their medal.
Previous studies couldn’t be thoroughly tested this phenomenon. But by utilizing artificial intelligence, we were in a position to test these two theories for the primary time on a big and diverse image dataset.
Smiling will not be a window to the soul
It is very important to notice that these results don’t provide any insight into how the athletes actually felt after they won bronze or silver.
Smiles will be faked for the cameras. Sometimes people smile in the event that they feel uncomfortable or uneasy.
We cannot subsequently say with absolute certainty that there’s a direct connection between facial expressions and emotions. Nevertheless, these external expressions of emotion retain their communicative power and offer insight into the emotions of athletes.
Our findings have implications beyond the Olympics. Whether you're competing in a spelling bee, applying for a job, or running for political office, coming in second is usually a disappointment.
Changing your perception of success can actually make you more satisfied along with your performance. This is particularly true if you take pride in a job well kept away from comparisons or expectations.
Second place all the time has its good sides.
