Counterfactual thinking

In the case of Olympic Medalists, counterfactual thinking explains why bronze medalists are often more satisfied with the outcome than silver medalists. The counterfactual thoughts for silver medalists tend to be how they could have done things differently in order to have achieved the gold medal. This allows them to over think what they did wrong rather than focus on the accomplishment. Whereas for bronze medalists, they tend to counterfactual think about how they could have not received a medal at all. This allows for them to feel accomplished that they placed at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_thinking#Examples