23C. Not quite the best: Interpreting the Emotions of Bronze and Silver Olympic Medalists

Lead Presenter(s)

Emma Pareigis

Abstract or Description

Emma Pareigis, Andrew Langbehn, Jeff Larsen

We can expect Olympic gold medalists to be elated, but what about the other two medalists on the stand? We might expect them to feel good because they beat most athletes. However, we also might expect them to feel bad because they were beaten by the gold medalist. Thus, they might experience mixed emotions of positive and negative affect. We sought to study this phenomenon by measuring levels of positive and negative affect in Olympic athletes’ facial expressions. We asked undergraduates to watch one to five-second videos of seventy-eight Olympic athletes on the medal stand. The undergraduates then rated how much positive affect and/or negative affect each athlete expressed. Undergraduates detected less positive affect and more negative affect in bronze and silver medalists’ faces than in gold medalists’ faces. They also appeared to detect more mixed emotions in bronze and silver medalists’ faces. These results raise the possibility that Olympic bronze and silver athletes can experience mixed emotions. Alternative interpretations will be addressed.

Mentor

Jeff Larsen