[Shmebulock]

This fits my personal experience very well.

I was once a volunteer at the world championships of a team sport. At the podium sceremony my job was to lead the team to the spot where each player received their medal. The bronze medalists were super happy and smiling. Almost all silver medalists that I led to the podium were literally crying.

No sophisticated facial recognition was needed to ascertain who was happier.

[necovek]

Medal ceremonies in team sports are usually after a bronze medal match (which bronze medalist won), and a gold medal match (which silver medalist just lost).

[nerdponx]

In addition to the "last match" effect mentioned in the thread, I wonder if this has to do with who wins which medal. Maybe the people winning bronze are more often doing better than they expected, while the people winning silver are more likely to expect that they might have been able to win gold.