Does comparison of self with others influence body image among adult women? An experimental study in naturalistic settings

Background and Objectives It has been suggested that body comparison is a safety behavior in eating disorders. This experimental study investigates the causal impact of upward and downward body comparison on body image, eating pathology, self-esteem, anxiety and mood. It also considers whether trait body comparison and eating pathology are associated with responsiveness to upward and downward comparison. Methods Thirty-nine women participated. Each completed trait comparison and eating pathology measures. Following this, each participant spent an hour (on different days) making an upward, downward or neutral comparison in a naturalistic setting. After each condition, the participant completed measures of body satisfaction, self-esteem, anxiety, depression and eating pathology. Results Participants were significantly less satisfied with their bodies following upward comparison. Both upward and downward comparison were associated with particularly negative effects if an individual had greater trait eating concerns. The effects of downward comparison were correlated with increased anxiety. Limitations The sample was lacking in diversity. Compliance with the experimental tasks was not strictly monitored. Conclusions Upward comparison resulted in lower body satisfaction, but downward comparison did not result in positive effects. However, trait eating concerns and comparison influenced the impact of both forms of comparison. Body comparison should be a target for treatment in CBT for eating disorders, particularly where the individual has a strong tendency to make comparisons with other people. Level of evidence Level III: Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies.

Upward socioeconomic status comparison temporarily hinders working memory: an exploratory study

Socioeconomic inequalities can be perpetrated by psychological mechanisms which negatively impact the cognitive resources of the more disadvantaged. When expecting to be evaluated against higher status peers, lower socioeconomic status individuals show a lower performance on a range of tasks, hypothesized to stem from a threat response. In the present study, we tested whether the same response can be triggered by the expectation of such an upward comparison regardless of objective resources. Right before a working memory task, participants were given a feedback about their relative socioeconomic status and were told their score was going to be compared to that of higher (or lower) socioeconomic status participants. While the overall performance was unaffected by the manipulation, a worse performance in participants in the upward comparison condition was found in the initial trials. Additionally, performance in the upward comparison group, but not in the downward one, was negatively correlated with trait anxiety. This result, together with the lack of a disparity in terms of objective resources between groups, suggests how threat mechanisms hindering performance do not only affect the more disadvantaged, but can be also triggered across the SES spectrum by the mere perception of inequalities under comparative settings.

How Social Comparison on Instagram Affects Well-Being. Perspectives from a Study Conducted During the Lockdown

"During the Spring of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries ordered lockdowns. The limitations of movement contributed to the rise of social media activity. The present research focused on how the active use of Instagram had an impact on well-being during the first lockdown in Romania. Aiming to explore how active Instagram use contributes to users' self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and loneliness during an unprecedented situation of a lockdown, we conducted an online survey in April 2020 on young adults (N=411) in Romania. Findings showed that actively using Instagram during the lockdown did not have a significant direct impact on self-esteem and satisfaction with life, but significantly decreased loneliness. Upward comparison of Instagram active users contributed to the increase in self-esteem but decreased the values of satisfaction with life and increased loneliness. The downward comparison had no significant impact on self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and loneliness. Keywords: social media, well-being, Instagram, social comparison, COVID-19 pandemic. "

Social comparison processes and adults’ judgments of children’s weight and intentions to control children’s weight

To combat rising rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. requires helping parents recognize when their child is overweight or obese. However, parents’ accuracy might be affected by social comparisons, in which parents compare their child to other overweight children, and rationalize that their child is ‘normal’ weight, and therefore, healthy. The aim of the study was to assess whether a photograph of a fictional child impacts a parent’s judgment of their own child’s weight. A nationwide sample of parents (n=517) of children ages 2-12 provided their child’s height and weight, viewed a photograph of an underweight (upward comparison), normal weight (control) or overweight (downward comparison) child, and judged the health of both. Parents inaccurately judged the downward comparison compared to the control and upward comparisons. Further, parents were less accurate in judging their child’s weight when given an upward comparison compared to a control. Intentions to control their children’s weight were unaffected.

Instagram Inspiration: How Upward Comparison on Social Network Sites Can Contribute to Well-Being

Passive exposure to others’ positive self-presentations on social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram has been repeatedly associated with reduced well-being, particularly by triggering upward social comparison and envy. However, prior research has largely neglected that upward comparisons on SNS may also facilitate positive outcomes, specifically media-induced inspiration, a motivational state highly conducive to well-being. We conducted two experiments that tested whether and how cognitive-affective processing of visual SNS postings results in inspiration. Study 1 (N = 270) provides first evidence that users react to more positive, optimized Instagram nature and travel posts with stronger upward comparison, which facilitates inspiration via an assimilative emotional reaction (benign envy), thus enhancing well-being. The preregistered Study 2 (N = 408) replicates these findings. Overall, results indicate that users can be inspired from comparing upwards on SNS, which may briefly improve their well-being. We discuss boundary conditions and implications for future communication research.

Telescopes and microscopes of motivation: Emulative goals in admiration and envy differ in abstractness and temporal orientation

Admiration and envy both stem from perceiving superior others. A recent debate centers on the motivational qualities of these emotions. Some scholars argue that, compared to admiration, envy is characterized by a stronger motivation to self-improve by emulating upward comparison standards. Mounting evidence suggests, however, that both admiration and (benign) envy can involve upward motivation. Yet, whether and how their motivational characteristics can be distinguished is unclear. We propose that emulative goals in admiration and envy differ in terms of their abstractness, explaining inconsistencies in prior research and pointing toward complementary functions of admiration and envy. In Study 1 (N = 193), participants recalled and re-experienced episodes of admiration or benign envy and listed goals elicited in these episodes. Additionally, in Study 2 (N = 416), some participants recalled episodes of malicious envy. Participants and blinded, external raters evaluated the concreteness versus abstractness of the goals. Furthermore, we assessed the goals’ temporal orientation. The results support that upward motivation in admiration is abstract and oriented toward improving in the long term, whereas upward motivation in benign envy involves specific goals and is oriented toward short-term gains. These findings suggest that admiration and envy fulfill their motivational functions in different ways.

Dispositional Greed Predicts Benign and Malicious Envy

Greed is an important precursor to envy. It is unclear, however, whether this link reflects only malicious envy, which involves hostile motivation towards superior others, or whether greed also predicts benign envy, which involves improvement motivation. If this is the case, the two forms of envy might connect greed to diverging psychological outcomes, such as differences in life satisfaction. The current research provides initial support for this possibility. In Study 1, participants (N = 296) responded to measures of dispositional greed and dispositional benign and malicious envy. Furthermore, after three weeks, participants were confronted with an upward comparison standard to assess state benign and malicious envy. As hypothesized, greed predicted more benign and more malicious envy. Furthermore, greed via malicious envy predicted lower life satisfaction, whereas via benign envy, it was connected to higher life satisfaction. Study 2 (N = 793) confirmed this pattern in a preregistered replication. These results underline the value of a more nuanced view on the relationship of greed and envy.

Asymmetric Social Comparison and Life Satisfaction in Social Networks

The aim of this study is to understand the effect of asymmetric social comparison on subjective well-being, and how it differs due to reciprocity. Our approach considers the social network of individuals as a local reference group. We tested competing hypotheses on negative and positive effects of comparison with worse-off (downward) and better-off (upward) targets with a representative sample of 1,596 Chileans over the age of 18. The findings support that life satisfaction is influenced by social comparison. By considering the social network as a reference group, the positive effect of downward comparison and the negative effect of upward comparison are confirmed. Upward comparison seems to be more substantial than downward comparison. Additionally, the positive effect of downward comparison decreases slightly with a reciprocal exchange of support between respondents and targets. The application of social network analysis opens a path to understanding the mechanisms underlying social comparison processes.

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

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.

Social Comparison Before, During, and After the Competition

This chapter provides an overview of the interplay between social comparison and competition before, during, and after the competition. Competition is defined broadly to include an act or process of competition, explicit or implicit, linked to basic social comparison processes. Before the competition, the authors consider the lessons of the social comparison literature on motives, individual differences, cultural and social norms, and competition entry decisions. The authors then review relevant findings on the role of individual factors (personal and relational) as well as situational factors that affect motivation and competitive behavior during the competition. Finally, the chapter examines the social comparison literature on downward comparison, upward comparison, and competition re-entry decisions after the competition.