That's not always the case. People determine how satisfied they feel by the comparisons they make. Medvec's best-known research involves the Olympics. She and some colleagues studied the reactions of U.S. athletes to the medals they had won. Doing better can actually mean feeling worse.
Bronze medalists think about how lucky they are to have a medal at all.
Thinking about these cutoff points can wreak havoc on our sense of self-worth. You get no bonus for less than 25 points, a certain bonus for 25 points, and a bigger bonus for 30 points. People will tend to feel happier with 25 points than with 28. At 25, they qualify for the first bonus pool. At 28, they feel they could have made the bigger pool.