l'esprit d'escalier

cathysphere:

onedirectionfangirlproblems:

usa gets silver:

russia gets silver:

chinese get silver:

british get bronze:

this is a good funny tumblr thing but

an Actual Real Science Fact is that people almost universally react more positively to getting bronze than silver, because our minds compare any outcome to the most salient alternative. In the case of silver, the salient alternative is getting gold. i.e. “I was this close to being NUMBER ONE.” Whereas with bronze, the most salient alternative is not medaling at all. So bronze is paradoxically experienced as a happier outcome despite being objectively worse.

(Source: juvenialls, via whatthebec)