scholarly journals Do Superordinate Identification and Temporal/Social Comparisons Independently Predict Citizens’ System Trust? Evidence From a 40-Nation Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Caricati ◽  
Chuma Kevin Owuamalam ◽  
Chiara Bonetti
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Positive Function ◽  
System Justification ◽  
World Value Survey ◽  
Temporal Comparison ◽  
Time Points ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Approach

Do superordinate in-group bias as well as temporal and social comparisons offer standalone explanations for system justification? We addressed this question using the latest World Value Survey (7th Wave), combining the responses of 55,721 participants from 40 different nations. Results from a random slope multilevel model showed that superordinate (national) identification, temporal comparison (i.e., the outcomes of an individual relative to those of his/her parents at different time points), and social comparison (based on income levels) were independent and positive predictors of system justification. Specifically, system justification increased when national identification was high, when income increased (i.e., the socioeconomic comparison was positive), and when the outcomes of citizens improved relative to the outcomes of their parents at relevant time points (i.e., the temporal comparison was positive). Incidentally, we also observed an interaction between national identification and temporal comparison (but not with social comparison), indicating that positive temporal comparison seemed to have a reduced effect (but still significant) for highly identified citizens. These results are supportive of the social identity approach to system justification and suggest that support for societal systems is a positive function of people’s personal and group interests.

Envy and Social Comparison

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Comparison

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. We explain what envy is, and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. We provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas there are clear links to research on social comparison, and research on envy has greatly benefitted from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, we hope that the findings on envy can also inspire those investigating social comparisons.

Envy and Social Comparison

2019 ◽  
pp. 226-250
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Comparison

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. This chapter explains what envy is and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. The authors provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas, there are clear links to research on social comparison and research on envy has greatly benefited from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, the authors hope that the findings on envy inspires those investigating social comparisons.

Temporal Comparisons in a Social World

2019 ◽  
pp. 309-344
Author(s):  
Anne E. Wilson ◽  
Erin Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Social World ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Temporal Comparison ◽  
Active Selection ◽  
Future Selves

People evaluate themselves against a variety of standards. In addition to measuring themselves against relevant others (social comparisons), individuals often appraise their current selves by looking to their former and future selves (temporal comparisons). This chapter first considers temporal comparison in relation to social comparison and then describes processes of temporal self-appraisal in more detail. The authors first consider the relative frequency and impact of temporal comparison relative to social comparison and describe how comparison preference and impact depends on method, context, and self-appraisal goals. Both comparison types are meaningful, and people show considerable fluidity in their use of these self-appraisal standards. Next, the authors describe temporal self-appraisal theory, which unpacks the nuanced mechanisms underlying active selection and construction of temporal comparisons, drawing parallels to similar social comparative processes.

Comparisons Across Dimensions, People, and Time: On the Primacy of Social Comparison in Self-Evaluations

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Zell ◽  
Jason E. Strickhouser
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Affective Reactions ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Temporal Comparison ◽  
Upward Comparison

People often consider how their performance in one domain compares to their performance in other domains, the performance of other people, and their past performance (i.e., dimensional, social, and temporal comparison). The present research is the first to test whether social comparisons have a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations than dimensional and temporal comparisons. Study 1 participants received downward versus upward dimensional, social, and temporal comparison feedback ( N = 393). Study 2 participants received downward versus upward comparison feedback for one type and lateral comparisons for the other two types ( N = 281). Dimensional and social comparison significantly influenced self-evaluations and affective reactions in both studies. As anticipated, however, social comparison had a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations and affective reactions than either dimensional or temporal comparison. These data provide novel, causal evidence for the primacy of social comparison when people receive three feedback types.

scholarly journals Istraživanja procesa socijalnog uspoređivanja: Osnovni teorijski i metodološki pristup

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Ćubela
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Comparison Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comparison Direction ◽  
Self Protection

This paper presents a review of some basic theories and empirical findings about the social comparison processes. Festinger’s theory of social comparison processes was not just the first attempt to systematically elaborate the role of these processes in self-evaluation, but remains also one of the most cited references in social comparison literature. After Festinger’s pioneering work, two basic lines in the development of this research area could be distinguished. The first line, which is based on Festinger’s basic assumption that people compare to others primarily when objective standards for self- evaluation are unavailable, is characterised by the research focus on the preference for specific directions of self-evaluative social comparisons and the relative importance in self-evaluation of social comparison and other types of comparisons, such as temporal comparisons. The second, more recent one, focused more on the consequences and the motives of social comparison, especially on the self-enhancement motive. It was established that these comparison processes are related to other motives as well (e. g. self-protection, self-improvement etc), and that, in addition to comparison direction and motives, the consequences of social comparison also depend on some other factors, such as an individual’s self-esteem level, personal control, his/her perceived closeness and similarity with comparison target, the nature of the comparison dimension etc. The last part of this paper presents an overview of the main methodological approaches in social comparison research, including some useful suggestions for the researchers with regard to some particular procedures and techniques for the assessment of social comparisons.

Myopia of the Masses

2019 ◽  
pp. 598-622
Author(s):  
Ruthie Pliskin ◽  
Daniel Yudkin ◽  
John T. Jost ◽  
Yaacov Trope
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
System Level ◽  
Construal Level ◽  
Comparison System ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Masses ◽  
High Level

Despite pervasive income inequality, protests demanding social change are relatively rare. This chapter proposes that comparative scope—the range of social comparison targets that an individual deems relevant—partially explains why people do or do not engage in social protest. Based on research on relative deprivation, social comparison, system justification, and construal level, the authors argue that the known tendency to draw myopic social comparisons may help explain why social protest is uncommon. When individuals engage in low construal-level comparisons with proximal others, they are likely to focus on concrete secondary features of their situation, promoting system justification. For inequality to produce system-level protest, disadvantaged individuals must expand their comparative scope through processes of critical awareness and consciousness-raising that promote high-level construals of the situation to consider abstract central features of the social system. Interventions designed to expand comparative scope may therefore assist practitioners in efforts to increase protest against inequality.

The Contributions of Social Comparison Motives to Uncontrollable SNS Use

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunji Kim ◽  
Richard Schlicht ◽  
Marlit Schardt ◽  
Arnd Florack
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Network Platform ◽  
Favorable Light

Excessive use of social network sites (SNSs) can often lead to negative consequences of frequent upward social comparisons despite having the social network platform to present users in a favorable light. However, the existing literature gives little evidence to what type of social comparison motives can lead to excessive use of SNSs. The present study showed that the tendency to engage in social comparisons of abilities (but not of opinions) predicted self-reported uncontrollable SNS use over and above the feelings of relative deprivation on social relationships and status. Our results indicate that engaging in SNS activities to make quick and easy social comparisons rather than to gain social recourses (e.g., making more social contacts and staying in touch with desirable social groups) might be the driving factor of uncontrollable use of SNSs.

scholarly journals Mother to mother: Mothers’ social comparison-based emotions on social networking sites

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-618
Author(s):  
Leman Pinar Tosun ◽  
Ahu Öztürk ◽  
Gamze Özdemir
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Emotion Classification ◽  
Internal Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Social networking sites (SNSs) are platforms where people make social comparisons very frequently, and because of those comparisons, they have the potential for evoking a wide range of emotions. According to typology of social comparison-based emotions, the emotions felt after social comparisons may vary according to the direction of comparison (upward vs. downward) as well as the internal process that triggered by those comparisons (assimilation vs. contrast). The current study aims to examine the mothers' emotions they felt after social comparisons they make with other mothers on the SNSs, and search out the usefulness of using the typology of social comparison-based emotions in examining those emotions. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted on 42 mothers between the ages of 20 and 48, who have been a member of SNSs for at least six months. Mothers responses to two open-ended questions; one is about the emotions they feel after upward comparisons, and the other is about the ones that they felt after downward comparison they made with other mothers on SNSs, were examined through thematic analyses. The results pointed out that the emotion classification offered in Smith’s theory might be useful in examining the social comparisons on SNSs made by mothers, with the addition of some new categories. Specifically, it was found that some mothers feel doubts about the credibility of information in other mothers’ posts, and some others denied they are emotionally influenced by social comparisons. Another interesting finding was that mothers reported to feel assimilative and contrastive emotions simultaneously.

How Good Am I at School Work and Compared with Whom?

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.J. Bornholt ◽  
G.H. Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
School Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Groups ◽  
Subject Domains

This study explores students' responses to social comparisons made within and between gender groups about perceptions of their own achievement. The social comparisons were made explicit, in this case, compared with most boys and with most girls in the class. Students rated their perceptions of performance and effort in contrasting subject domains of mathematics and English. The results were consistent with traditional gender stereotypes in an interaction between the comparison group and gender, but only for English. In comparison with the opposite sex, females rated their English performance higher and males rated their performance lower, with corresponding opposite effects for effort. At least for English, gendered social comparison is one way traditional gender stereotypes are reflected in students' perceptions of their own achievement.

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