In 1995, Cornell psychologists had students rate the expressions of medalists at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Bronze medalists looked happier than silver medalists. The explanation: silver compares itself with the gold it missed, bronze with the fourth place it narrowly avoided. In 2021, software analysis of podium photos of 413 medalists from the 2000 to 2016 Games found the same pattern on average, though not every single time.
Remembering is not replaying a recording — it is rebuilding. Each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily malleable and can be altered before being stored again. That is why two people can sincerely remember the same event… differently.
In 2003, Johnson and Goldstein compared European countries. Where you must tick a box to become a donor, consent rates ranged from 4% to 28%. Where you're a donor by default unless you opt out, they topped 85%. People aren't more generous on one side; most simply stick with whatever option was chosen for them.