Comments on: BBC Future column: What a silver medal teaches us about regret

By: x3d

x3d — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:59:18 +0000

I’d like to see the next statistical research where they compare the average evolution of winners and non winners.
Say, what happened on subsequent competitions (if any!) for each of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd positions, as well as the top non-winner? Did they go up, did they go down, did they repeat? Or maybe abandoned altogether?

By: x3d

x3d — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:51:59 +0000

@Tom To paraphrase Hamlet, it all depends how you look at it. You can choose to consider that a young police never got to live his adult life, nor make a career, which is (assumingly) sad. Or you can think that the pre-retirement victim never got to live his remaining well-deserved years of peace and freedom, after a lifetime of work. Sad again.
Or you can wonder if any of the above is actually worth of any assumption. Is spending your life as a policeman definitely a career? Is is really good to retire and abruptly change pace & habits after decades of work? Can one truly hope his retirement to be about peace and freedom, rather than mental, physical & social degradation?
I’d say that such plot tricks and setups are simply a catalyst for whatever reaction you are naturally inclined to have. Funny thing is, if you want to be smarter and resist going with the flow, you’d probably end up not having any more fun watching a movie. Detachment can kill.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 22:00:58 +0000

Hindsight is 40/20. We manipulate the past to conform to our ideal future.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:45:17 +0000

The idea of the study was the closer we approach a goal the more frustrating it is to be turned away. This would also mean that fourth place was equally frustrating. As evidenced in these pictures.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/stacylambe/the-devastating-world-of-coming-in-fourth

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:42:22 +0000

This reminds me of the cutting in line study where people closer to the front of the line were more likely to object than people at the rear of the line. I think this is referenced in Aronson’s Social Animal.

By: amelie

amelie — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:34:24 +0000

Seeing as how “hindsight is 20/20″ (no science there, just a saying)I wonder if the silver metalists change their minds 5 years down the road. Once they calm down and get some perspective, wouldn’t they eventually feel proud at their achievement?

On a much less relevant note: want to have some fun? I have a hypothesis that reality cooking shows film the opening segments (and the interviews) after the producers are done filming. I’ve decided (based on nothing logical) I can predict who won the show based on the facial expressions of the contestants in the opening segments alone.

Like the silver metalists, it’s not always the winning chef who goes on to fame and fortune. Does anyone remember that Ilan guy who won Top Chef? No. It’s Marcel who went on to become popular and get all sorts of tv spots.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:19 +0000

I think to some extent a silver medalist\’s regret vs. joy is dependent on what their expectation was going into the event. Particularly when that expectation was realistic based on past performance. In McKayla Maroney’s case, she was clearly the favorite to win gold, being pretty much objectively considered the best vaulter ever. So when she failed to land her second vault and had to ”settle” for silver, it was understandably a big shock and disappointment. Similarly, in the men’s 10m platform diving final, Qui Bo was ”supposed” to win, so he was clearly disappointed to get silver. While in contrast, Tom Daley, without the high expectations, was elated to win bronze.

I also find the final rounds of the elimination-type events (tennis, volleyball, etc.) to be interesting from a similar psychological point of view. The loser of the gold medal match gets silver, but ends the competition with a loss. While the winner of the bronze medal match gets ”only” bronze, but ends the competition with a win. Almost invariably, those bronze medal winners appear much happier than the silver medal ”losers.”

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:18:23 +0000

“Remember that the next time you see a Hollywood film that plays with your emotions in this manner.”

The classic, of course, is the cop who gets shot on the day before retirement. It should, logically, be much sadder for them to die younger. But it doesn’t ever work that way.