Talk:Social comparison theory

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jasonaperez7.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:36, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Older comments
"Social comparison to me is when one person is trying to compare their selves to another person."

I am not sure if this is the proper format or way for a Wiki post to be phrased. Especially since this is a subjective means of discussing the issue.

71.58.68.204 22:47, 10 February 2007 (UTC)A Concerned Psychology Major

This needs to mention, or at least link to, info on downward vs. upward social comparisons. I'm fairly certain there's also some relevant literature on the interaction of social comparisons and self-esteem, but it's not coming to mind right now. DivineAna 00:28, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

relationship to Veblen "pecuniary emulation" ?
Thorstein Veblen did a bunch of good writing about pecuniary emulation in The Theory of the Leisure Class, which sounds a lot like social comparison theory. 68.42.214.106 05:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

what does this mean?
"He continued with the idea that to cease comparison between one’s self and others causes hostility and deprecation of opinions."--24.130.53.146 (talk) 20:41, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Article overhaul
I reorganized the article today, creating a new reference list, and separating the "main criticisms and further development" section into several sub-sections. I also removed the history section, as it seemed to be original research. I've pasted it below in case someone wants to add it back in:


 * In the 1950s, Festinger was given a grant from the Behavioral Sciences Division of the Ford Foundation. This grant was part of the research program of the Laboratory for Research in Social Relations, which developed the Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954).  The development of social comparison hinged on several socio-psychological processes, and in order to create this theory, Festinger was influenced by research that focused on social communication (Festinger, 1950), group dynamics, conformity and the autokinetic effect (Sherif, 1936), compliant behavior, social groups, independence and dependence in response to unanimous majority (Asch, 1956) and level of aspiration (Festinger, 1942; Kruglanski & Mayseless, 1990).  In his article, he sourced various experiments with children and adults, however, much of his theory was based on his own research (Festinger, 1954). After the 1966 supplement work by Pettigrew, Brickman, and Wheeler and the linkage of social comparison to Attribution Theory, interest was rekindled in comparison processes.
 * When understanding the basis of social comparison, it is imperative to understand that no one thought process created the theory, but rather, a compilation of experiments, historical evidence and philosophical thought. While Festinger was the first social psychologist to coin the term “Social Comparison”, the general concept cannot be claimed exclusively by him (Suls & Wheeler, 2000).  In fact, this theory’s origins can be dated back to Aristotle and Plato.  Plato spoke of comparisons of self-understanding and absolute standards.  Aristotle was concerned with comparisons between people.  Later, philosophers such as Kant, Marx and Rousseau spoke on moral reasoning and social inequality.  (Suls, Martin, & Wheeler, 2002).
 * When understanding the basis of social comparison, it is imperative to understand that no one thought process created the theory, but rather, a compilation of experiments, historical evidence and philosophical thought. While Festinger was the first social psychologist to coin the term “Social Comparison”, the general concept cannot be claimed exclusively by him (Suls & Wheeler, 2000).  In fact, this theory’s origins can be dated back to Aristotle and Plato.  Plato spoke of comparisons of self-understanding and absolute standards.  Aristotle was concerned with comparisons between people.  Later, philosophers such as Kant, Marx and Rousseau spoke on moral reasoning and social inequality.  (Suls, Martin, & Wheeler, 2002).
 * When understanding the basis of social comparison, it is imperative to understand that no one thought process created the theory, but rather, a compilation of experiments, historical evidence and philosophical thought. While Festinger was the first social psychologist to coin the term “Social Comparison”, the general concept cannot be claimed exclusively by him (Suls & Wheeler, 2000).  In fact, this theory’s origins can be dated back to Aristotle and Plato.  Plato spoke of comparisons of self-understanding and absolute standards.  Aristotle was concerned with comparisons between people.  Later, philosophers such as Kant, Marx and Rousseau spoke on moral reasoning and social inequality.  (Suls, Martin, & Wheeler, 2002).

PostScarcity (talk) 23:58, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that social comparison bias be merged into social comparison theory. I think that the content in the social comparison bias article can easily be explained in the context of social comparison theory, and would make a welcome expansion of said article.

PostScarcity (talk) 01:04, 9 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Support

I support this -- see above. PostScarcity (talk) 01:19, 9 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Oppose

I would oppose this at this stage for two reasons. Firstly, I would be willing to bet that ‘social comparison bias’ has been subject to a variety of explanations. Discussing social comparison bias only in the context of social comparison theory is to prejudice that discussion. Second, I am not aware of literature that uses social comparison theory to explain social comparison bias. I therefore have original research concerns. My suggestion would be to hold off on the merger until we have at least seen what a social comparison bias section looks like in the present article. There is no harm in having a subsection in the theory article and having a main article dedicated to the bias. Cheers Andrew (talk) 07:01, 13 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Oppose

I agree with Andrew; it is pretty clear that "discussing social comparison bias only in the context of social comparison theory is to prejudice that discussion." --Omnipaedista (talk) 09:06, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Editing; APS Wikipedia Initiative
I will be editing this article within the next couple of days to try and improve it. My University is participating in the APS Wikipedia Initiative in which Psychology Wikipedia Articles are being edited in an attempt to improve their quality. I will provide updates on this talk page. Spanglae (talk) 21:16, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Initial Framework Edits
This was what was originally placed under Initial Framework: In the initial theory, festinger hypothesized several things. First, he stated that individuals are motivated to gain accurate evaluations of themselves by examining their opinions and abilities in comparison to others. Such comparisons provide an objective benchmark against which an individual can compare themselves in relevant domains, providing a sense of validity and cognitive clarity. He hypothesized that people who are similar to an individual are especially good in generating accurate evaluations of abilities and opinions. To this, he added that the tendency to compare oneself with some other specific person decreases as the difference between their opinions and abilities become more divergent. He also hypothesized that there is an upward drive towards achieving greater abilities.

He further theorized that comparing the self with others leads to pressures of uniformity. If discrepancies arise between the evaluator and comparison group there is a tendency to reduce the divergence by either attempting to persuade others, or changing their personal views to attain uniformity. However, the importance, relevance and attraction to a comparison group that affects the original motivation for comparison, mediates the pressures towards uniformity.

This is what I changed it to: In the initial theory, Festinger provided nine main hypotheses. First, he stated that humans have a basic drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities and that people evaluate themselves through objective, nonsocial means (Hypothesis I). Second, Festinger stated that if objective, nonsocial means were not available, that people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparison to other people (Hypothesis II). Next, he hypothesized that the tendency to compare oneself to another person decreases as the difference between their opinions and abilities becomes more divergent. In other words, if someone is much different from you, you are less likely to compare yourself to that person (Hypothesis III). He next hypothesized that there is a unidirectional drive upward in the case of abilities, which is largely absent in opinions. This drive refers to the value that is placed on doing better and better. (Hypothesis IV). Next, Festinger hypothesizes that there are non-social restraints that make it difficult or even impossible to change one’s ability and these restraints are largely absent for opinions. In other words, people can change their opinions when they want to but no matter how motivated individuals may be to improve their ability, there may be other elements that make this impossible (Hypothesis V). Festinger goes on to hypothesize that the cessation of comparison with others is accompanied by hostility or derogation to the extent that continued comparison with those persons implies unpleasant consequences (Hypothesis VI). Next, any factors which increase the importance of some particular group as a comparison group from some particular opinion or ability will increase the pressure toward uniformity concerning that ability or opinion within that group. If discrepancies arise between the evaluator and comparison group there is a tendency to reduce the divergence by either attempting to persuade others, or changing their personal views to attain uniformity. However, the importance, relevance and attraction to a comparison group that affects the original motivation for comparison, mediates the pressures towards uniformity (Hypothesis VII). His next hypothesis states that if persons who are very divergent from one’s own opinion or ability are perceived as different from oneself on attributes consistent with the divergence, the tendency to narrow the range of comparability becomes stronger (Hypothesis VIII). Lastly, Festinger hypothesized that when there is a range of opinion or ability in a group, the relative strength of the three manifestations of pressures toward uniformity will be different for those who are close to the mode of the group than for those who are distant from the mode. Those close to the mode will have stronger tendencies to change the positions of others, weaker tendencies to narrow the range of comparison, and even weaker tendencies to change their own opinions (Hypothesis IX).

More emphasis is placed on hypotheses. All hypotheses are included, instead of just some. Will probably expand hypotheses at a later date. Another Suls Reference was incorporated. Spanglae (talk) 22:54, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Self Evaluation and Self Enhancement Addition
Added a "self-enhancement" and "self-evaluation" section and linked pages accordingly.

Two functions of social comparison, according to Thorton and Arrowood (1966) are self-evaluation and self-enhancement (also referred to as 'evaluation' and 'validation of the self' by Singer). These motivations underlie how a person engages in social comparison.

Later advances in theory led to self-enhancement being one of the four self-evaluation motives:, along with self-assessment, self-verification, and self-improvement.

This provides further information. Spanglae (talk) 18:42, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

SEM Addition
Added a bit about SEM from the social psychology network website: Abraham Tesser has conducted research on self-evaluation dynamics that has taken several forms. A self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model of social behavior focuses on the consequences of another person’s outstanding performance on one’s own self-evaluation. It sketches out some conditions under which the other’s good performance bolsters self-evaluation, i.e., "basking in reflected glory", and conditions under which it threatens self-evaluation through a comparison process. Spanglae (talk) 19:01, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

Social comparison bias
I started a discussion here Ihaveacatonmydesk (talk) 19:29, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Changes
Things I would like to change would be moderators of social comparison it seems like it is just there introducing the next topics which would not be needed just include them in the next section. The same with Models of social comparison is just there introducing the concept. Same with social affiliation as well not really needed. I would also include more sources that are up to date, but of course, keep the ones that discuss the history of social comparison. In the section misery loves miserable company I do not see how it relates to social comparison, just seems like it shouldn't be there. That whole social affiliations section talks about electrical shock and how it works with anxiety but it does not have much to deal with social comparison. I would also move the Models of communication too before the Moderators of Social comparison section. At the beginning of the initial framework, I would include a reason why knowing the nine main hypotheses beneficial to knowing social comparison because the reader might be confused as to why it was included. There is an article that is included on the page about sex roles and I do not see how it is relevant to the topic. On that page, the reference states "social comparison can also lead to feelings of self pity or satisfaction." Although that is a valid point I do not see where it is included in the article they referred to. I would include my textbook and some information it provides along with adding it as a reference. I will use the CRAAP test to include some more credible sources that are more up to date and relevant to what those are going through today. I could possibly include how it is affecting school work and an individual's mental health as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marklinealdajuste (talk • contribs) 04:56, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Criticism as Praxis
— Assignment last updated by CarsonJones06 (talk) 20:26, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Mass Media and Society
— Assignment last updated by Iamclandestined (talk) 04:25, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Communication Theory
— Assignment last updated by Kwv2014 (talk) 18:20, 20 November 2023 (UTC)