Counterfactual Thinking - Olympics analysis Have you noticed that a bronze medalist is generally more happy than a silver medalist at the end of the game. Its not incidental finding but 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 medalists' minds gravitate towards thinking that they missed out on the gold medal by an agonizingly small margin. The silver medal is seen as a shortcoming because the mind constantly contemplates questions su...