The Campaign Company specialises in social research and behaviour change. This is your guide to what we’ve been reading. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
This week we look, in our Behaviour Change section, at the psychology of coming second. Are Silver medallists really less happy than Bronze-winners? And what does this tell us?
And of course, there’s the wooden spoon that is Charlie’s Attic – this week including some fantastic drone footage of sheep migrating and a look at Charlie’s own attempt at eliciting some Classic Dom.
Also-rans?
With the Olympics underway we look back this week at a study from a couple of years ago. It asked whether Bronze medallists at the 2016 Olympic Games tended to be happier than Silver medallists, using data on a) the facial expressions of competitors on the medals podium, and b) their responses to questions in subsequent interviews. It also looked at how much candidates engage in counterfactual narratives about what could have been.
Previous studies had suggested that bronze medallists were much happier than silver medallists for reasons best summed up by Jerry Seinfeld in one of his stand-up routines where he explained the counterfactual thinking of silver medallists: “Think about it, you win the gold, you feel good. You win the bronze, you think, ‘Well, at least I got something.’ But when you win that silver, it’s like, ‘Congratulations, you almost won. Of all the losers, you came in first of that group. You’re the number one loser. No one lost ahead of you!’”
The most recent study finds that Bronze and Silver medallists are roughly equal in happiness – a finding which is striking in itself, given that Gold medallists are always significantly happier than both. It also reveals that runners-up are more likely to engage in counterfactuals and ‘what ifs’ than those who come third. Those who come second are looking ahead at what might have been, it suggests, whereas those who come third are happier with what is.
This is a pretty niche are of psychological research, but it nevertheless tells us something about motivations and rewards; helps us develop better ways of consoling and re-motivating children, partners or teams who don’t win; as well as providing an interesting parable about the psychology of success and the ways in which we often measure achievement.
And finally this week, Charlie’s Attic, Eric the Eel to our Weekly Michael Phelps:
Browse this map of Britain’s fictional towns and cities, from Holby to Middlemarch.
See below how our own Charlie caused Dominic Cummings to blow a gasket in the “public money for political polling” row. We may need to rebrand this section Charlie’s “Out of your mind” Attic.
