Research suggests that athletes who win bronze medals are actually happier than those who win silver medals. The reason for this has to do with the way in which the athletes think about their performance. The silver medallists focus on the notion that, if they had performed slightly better, then they would perhaps have won a gold medal. In contrast, the bronze medallists focus on the thought that if they had performed slightly worse, then they wouldn't have won anything at all. Psychologists refer to our ability to imagine what might have happened, rather than what actually did happen, as "counter-factual thinking."
Space is organized differently in different cultures. In the United States of America, streets in big cities usually run parallel to each other and are often numbered in order. This arrangement makes perfect sense to the people in the States. When they walk in a city like Paris, however, where the main streets spread out from a central point, they easily get lost. Adding to their problem, streets in Paris are just named, not numbered. It is amazing to Americans how Parisians get around without any difficulty.
