Det er åbenbart slet ikke så slemt at tabe.  Ifølge en artikel i Washington Post har taberne ved et politisk valg det som regel meget bedre efter nederlaget, end de troede (eller ihvertfald gav udtryk for) før valget.  Undersøgelsen blev lavet af Daniel Gilbert, en psykolog ved Harvard University, som i 1994 undersøgte, hvorledes Texas-vælgerne havde dey før og efter, at de havde skullet vælge mellem guvernørkandidaterne George W. Bush og Ann Richards:

“Not surprisingly, supporters of both politicians predicted they would be devastated if their candidate lost and said they would be delighted with victory. Bush, of course, defeated Richards, setting him on a course that eventually led to the White House.

About a month after the 1994 election, Gilbert had researchers call the same voters to ask how they felt. Supporters of Bush said they were still delighted–exactly in line with their prediction.

But supporters of Richards, who had said they would be devastated, were significantly happier than they had predicted.

“When partisans imagine being devastated when their candidate loses, they focus on how they will feel when they think about it,” Gilbert said. “What they fail to realize is how seldom they think about it.”

Så måske er det (ifølge Wall Street Journals OpinionJournal.com)–en del af–forklaringen på, hvorfor mange Republikanere p.t. går rundt og smiler sig igennem efterdønningerne af sidste uges nederlag.

“According to Gilbert and Vedantam, this is a normal pattern. People almost always feel less bad than they expect after suffering a loss–even something as horrific as the death of a child. That’s because “when people are asked to predict how they will feel about something, they think about just that one thing instead of all the other things that make up everyday life.” It’s not that they don’t feel the loss but that the demands and distractions of living keep them from focusing on it single-mindedly.”

Så er spørgsmålet bare: Hvordan mon mange af denne blogs skribenter (og læsere) vil have det efter næste folketingsvalg, når den nuværende regering er faldet …?