The 2014 Football World Cup is now over.
Germany won the trophy after winning over Argentina in the final.
Here, in The Netherlands, we had about one
month of “Orange (Oranje) Fever” (see pics below) with everything, except the
grass, being orange. Considering that The Netherlands is a small country with
less than 17 million people, I dare to say that the National Football team did
very well at both this World Cup and the previous one (South Africa 2010).
Four years ago, Oranje were second best (losing
the final to Spain), while this year they were third best after winning over
Brazil in the “small final”. Thank you Oranje!
Judging by the reactions of the Dutch players after
being second in 2010 and third in 2014, the conclusion is that being third is
better than being second best.
The conclusion stands even if we focus only on
the games this year. The Dutch were quite happy after getting the third place
in the World cup, while the Argentinians were devastated after getting the
second place. The Argentinian captain, the famous Lionel Messi was truly upset
even if he was awarded the golden ball trophy for the best player of the
tournament.
If we would be thinking with our feet in cold
water (system 2), I guess it would be quite obvious that being second is better
than being third. But emotions aren’t all that straightforward.
In a (now famous) study by Medvec, VictoriaHusted; Madey, Scott F.; Gilovich, Thomas published in the Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology in 1995, the researchers found that at the 1992 Olympics
in Barcelona the bronze medals winners were happier than the silver medallists.
The authors attribute this to counterfactual
thinking or, in simpler words, “What could have been”. Silver medallists think
that they could have won the gold while the bronze medallists are happy to just
get a medal.
In the Football World Cup the effect is even
more pronounced since the silver medallists (this year Argentina, four years
ago Oranje) get their medals after losing the final; whereas the bronze
medallists get their medals after winning the last game (“small final”).
Thank you again Oranje and maybe in 2018 you
will be even happier than now (after winning third place).
Orange Fever Pics
Yes! I had Orange Fever as well
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