Recent study finds that one’s happiness affects the way one perceives and appreciates ‘achievements’ or ‘successes’. The study shows that happy spectators are less likely to devalue silver and bronze medals in relation to gold medals. The researchers describe three experiments. The first featured 106 undergraduates at a South Korean university, who began by completing the Subjective Happiness Scale — a series of four questions designed to measure the extent to which you consider yourself a happy person. They were then asked which is the better method for determining which nations are more successful at the Olympic Games: the total number of medals they receive, or the total number of gold medals? Participants who reported higher levels of happiness were more likely to prefer the total number of medals. According to researchers, happy people, compared to unhappy people, tend to group gold, silver, and bronze medals together into an inclusive category (‘achievement’) and treat them equally. https://psmag.com/happiness-is-cheering-for-the-bronze-medalist-b0ba6615e0fb#.w5ixy3w2f http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103116303596
I wonder if there is a similar effect depending on politicial orientation? Would people with liberal or conservative viewpoints make a distinction between gold medals vs total medals?
