Social Comparisons

Imagine you are feeling particularly motivated one day and decide to go jog a mile. You come back panting and see that your running time was about 10 minutes. Is that good or bad?

Generally, people can answer this question through a common strategy: comparing it to the times of other runners, especially those similar to oneself. Festinger’s theory of social comparison suggests that we learn much about ourselves through comparisons- either upward or downward- with other individuals. Like the idea of the “looking-glass self,” the theory of social comparison demonstrates how much of what we know about ourselves is formulated and learned about through other people. Humans, as a cultural animal, learn where they stand in reference to others by comparing themselves to one another. When these comparisons are upwards, they may be encouraging, though too high of a comparison can be disappointing rather than constructive. Downward comparisons, similarly, can feel rewarding, but too low of a comparison hardly seems to achieve much. The best comparisons are to those who are most similar to ourselves.

Another article suggests that Festinger’s theory applies to personally held opinions as well as more concrete concepts (such as running times). Attitudes, opinions, and beliefs are often compared to establish a sense of unity within a group; groups tend to be polarized towards certain opinions, and discrepancies among opinions held by group members are often remedied quickly to maintain solidarity.

Previous research suggests that preschoolers do not experience such pressure to compare oneself to peers. However, a surprising new study from the University of Michigan seems to say just the opposite. Researchers Rhodes and Brickman showed that preschoolers responded negatively after learning that they performed worse on a tracing task than a schoolmate. Even more interesting is that the children felt worse only if the classmate they were compared to was of the opposite gender. After being compared to a classmate of the same sex or an unidentified sex, preschoolers showed increased performance on future tasks, but after comparison to the opposite sex, performance decreased- most likely because of deflated self-esteem and motivation. This attests to the dual nature of social comparison- depending on who you compare yourself to, the result may be constructive or defeating. The researchers concluded their findings by stating that “these findings have implications for the origins of social comparison, category-based reasoning, and the development of gender stereotypes and achievement motivation.”

Isanski, Barbara. "Preschoolers' Response to Social Comparisons Involving Relative Failure" 30 Oct 2008

Festinger, L., A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations, 1954, 114-140

Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Social psychology and human nature. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.