研究：獲得銅牌比獲得銀牌更開心

Finishing first is what matters at the Winter Olympics, but scientists believe that coming home third is often better than being second best.

It's all to do with a tongue-twisting phenomenon called "counterfactual thinking" or "what might have been", said Victoria Medvec, a psychologist and university professor.

"On average, bronze medallists are happier than silver medallists," she told the Globe and Mail newspaper, explaining that third-place winners have upward thoughts ("at least I won") that increase satisfaction.

In stark contrast, those who come in second tend to have downward "if only" thoughts that decrease happiness.

The most telling study involving athletes used footage from medal ceremonies at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Researchers including Medvec from the Northwestern University's School of Management in Illinois, asked subjects to rate the satisfaction of bronze and silver medal winners based on their facial expressions.

The study revealed a discrepancy between performance and satisfaction, said Medvec.

"Those who perform objectively better can actually feel worse than those who they outperformed."

Expectations from sponsors, teammates and fans can contribute to an athlete's sense of disappointment, according to Saul Miller, a Vancouver-based psychologist.

在冬奧會上爭得第一名固然重要，但是科學家認爲摘得銅牌而歸比摘得銀牌感覺更好。

心理學家、大學教授維多利亞•麥維琪說，這一切都和“反向思考”現象有關，也就是“本來可以怎麼樣”的想法。

她告訴《環球郵報》說：“一般來說，銅牌獲得者比銀牌獲得者更快樂。”她解釋說，第三名的獲得者會抱着積極向上的想法（“至少我得獎了”），這種想法增加了滿足感。

與此構成鮮明對比的是，那些獲得第二名的人傾向於抱有“要是……就好了”的消極想法，這種想法減少了他們的快樂。

最能說明問題的和運動員相關的研究採用了1992年巴塞羅那夏季奧運會的頒獎典禮的錄像帶片段。

研究者包括來自美國伊利諾斯州西北大學管理學院的麥維琪教授。他們讓參與者根據錄像帶上運動員的面部表情來評定銅牌和銀牌獲得者的滿意度。

麥維琪說，研究揭示，運動員的表現和滿意度之間有落差。

“實際上，那些客觀上表現較好的人比那些表現不如他們的人的滿意度要差。”

溫哥華心理學家索爾•米勒說，來自贊助商、隊員和支持者的期待都可能造成運動員的失落感。

Vocabulary:

counterfactual: expressing what has not happened but could, would, or might under differing conditions 表達在條件不同時可能發生但事實上沒有發生的情況

footage: part of a film showing a particular event （影片中的）連續鏡頭，片段