Medvec V H, Madey S F, Gilovich T
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-7601, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1995 Oct;69(4):603-10. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.69.4.603.
Research on counterfactual thinking has shown that people's emotional responses to events are influenced by their thoughts about "what might have been." The authors extend these findings by documenting a familiar occasion in which those who are objectively better off nonetheless feel worse. In particular, an analysis of the emotional reactions of bronze and silver medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics--both at the conclusion of their events and on the medal stand--indicates that bronze medalists tend to be happier than silver medalists. The authors attribute these results to the fact that the most compelling counterfactual alternative for the silver medalist is winning the gold, whereas for the bronze medalist it is finishing without a medal. Support for this interpretation was obtained from the 1992 Olympics and the 1994 Empire State Games. The discussion focuses on the implications of endowment and contrast for well being.
关于反事实思维的研究表明，人们对事件的情绪反应会受到他们对“本可能发生之事”的想法的影响。作者通过记录一个常见的情形来扩展这些发现，即在这种情形中，那些客观上境遇更好的人却感觉更糟。具体而言，对1992年夏季奥运会铜牌和银牌得主在其比赛结束时以及在领奖台上的情绪反应进行分析后发现，铜牌得主往往比银牌得主更快乐。作者将这些结果归因于这样一个事实，即银牌得主最令人信服的反事实替代情况是赢得金牌，而铜牌得主的则是没有获得奖牌。从1992年奥运会和1994年帝国州运动会获得了对这一解释的支持。讨论集中在禀赋和对比对幸福感的影响上。
