What Is Social Comparison?

In “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor is guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Fortunato and should go to jail for his crime. Montresor speaks of the “thousand injuries” Fortunato caused him and, more recently, the “insult” that Montresor cannot forgive. Vowing to seek retribution, Montresor comments on the importance of ensuring his own innocence throughout the process of revenge. He goes out of his way to be friendly to Fortunato. Other evidence that supports the crime as being preconceived includes Montresor preying on Fortunato’s weakness, his love of wine and his conceited nature. He praises Fortunato on his knowledge of wine and taunts him with the full barrel that he just purchased asking him for his expert opinion. In preparation

The Social Comparison theory can be applied to how beauty standards in television have an effect on how children view themselves and the world. The theory describes that individuals make judgments about themselves based on the comparison they view on television. In the theory there are two types of comparisons to be made: upward comparisons and downward comparisons. This analysis will focus on upward comparisons as it is best applied to how beauty standards in television affects the way children view the world. In upward comparisons an individual compares him/herself with others who they feel are better than them. This comparison can only lead to on of two things, the individuals will try to self-enhance themselves the better conform to the

The ‘better-than-average’ (or BTAE) effect states that certain individuals would evaluate themselves more positively than the average person. Within this, there is argument to suggest that there are both positive and negative implications linked to this theory. The concept of ‘self’ plays a large role in discovering whether these factors affect the individual, whereas social comparison is also a great aspect in understanding how the better-than-average effect can include itself into everyday society, therefore creating an unrealistic divide between different groups.

Firstly, there have been significant links between our online presence and other aspects of our mental health, which has inspired the subject matter of many recent research studies around the world. There are many psychological and physical factors that affect our mental well-being due to the impact of social media. Depression and Body Dysmorphia being the leading causes, due to the content the individuals are exposed to while online. Even though researchers coined the correlation between social media use and depression as complex. Data was collected from a sample of 340 first year college students, and the findings were that the increase use of Facebook have been associated with higher levels of loneliness. Also the extensive use of Facebook has been associated with higher rates of disordered eating and body image insecurity.

“Christakis and Fowler argue that social networks are influential in a wide range of social aspects of life including political opinions, weight gain, and happiness”(Little et al 2014, p.178-179).

Research completed by Gardner, Gabriel, and Hochschild (2002) reveals that when the target for comparison is part is self-construed, it leads the successes of the individual to become a cause for celebration rather than a cost to self-esteem. The current research was based on the theory of self-evaluation in which an individual gains self-esteem when they outperform others and lose self-esteem when they are outperformed. The research from the study shows that we, as humans, are not always greedy and wish to outshine our in-group. Pleasure in successes can be achieved even when we include our friends in our self-views.

Research has been done to identify how SJT can affect self-esteem in individuals of both high and low status groups. Jost et al. (2002) suggests that the process of system justification makes way for implicit ramification on the self-esteem for individuals within the lower social system by stating that “members of low as well as high status groups expressed non conscious favoritism toward members of higher status groups on cognitive affective and behavioral measures” (Jost et al., 2002, p. 598). It can be argued that this is representative of a social hierarchy in which those who are lower may socially compare themselves to those on top. According to Myers (2013), social comparisons can be detrimental to personal satisfaction as we compare ourselves upward toward others. It can be assumed that SJT is a form of social comparison, in which the lower group favors the top, thus causing a decrease in satisfaction. This assumption is further supported by Jost et al. (2002) that favoritism later continues to the social hierarchy, thus causing self-esteem problems for those of lower stature. Jost et al. (2002) postulates that “our thoughts, feelings, and actions seem to reproduce biases in favor of high status groups, often

Social comparison is technically known as “the process of assessing ourselves in relation to others to form judgments of our own talents, abilities, qualities, and so forth” (Wood, 2016, p.50). This internal process is something that occurs constantly in everyday life, although in most cases, is not done deliberately. The process of social comparison begins when one distinguishes any differences or

Judging one's worth in the world through social comparisons is central not only to human psychological functioning, but also critical to the survival of individual animals in many species (O’Brien) I have caught myself on many occasions making comparisons at the gym. I hate that I do it, but it is natural. I do both though, I compare downward and upward. If I see a girl that is skinny at the gym I am automatically making those upward comparisons thinking that she is better than I am. I also catch myself looking at someone that is bigger than me to make myself feel better about how I look. In contrast to upward comparisons, downward comparison theory (Wills, 1981) predicts that people experiencing negative feelings or cognitions about themselves

In the new age of social media, people are constantly getting bombarded with multiple expectations on how one should live their life. With the infinite scrolling of exciting status updates on new jobs, more money, new travel destinations, relationship goals, etcetera; it can be rather easy for someone to feel inadequate at times about how less exciting their life might be compared to the next. In an article written by James Berges and posted on Shine titled, “How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others and Start Thriving,” goes more in-depth on this idea of “comparison overload.” Berges is a freelance writer with a Bachelors degree in Psychology, and in his article he uses studies, statistics, and anecdotal examples to help engage the reader on his stance on social media and the negative effects it has on the brain.

Social comparison is how we evaluate how desirable those characteristics are and then see how we measure up to the group and use group as a reference. Not only do we see ourselves as possessing specific characteristics, we also evaluate how desirable those characteristics are. For example, Amish children learns from their interactions with family friends and their churches. We compare ourselves to others in our identity groups. For Example, like websites like "Hot or Not" allows someone to upload a picture of him or herself and allow it to be judged by

Social comparison theory is simply how we compare ourselves with others. We may disclose information about our athletic abilities and religious beliefs. By doing this it helps us decide if we are inferior or superior to the person and it also helps us determine if we want to pursue a relationship. We do have to be consider what group we want to compare ourselves to, because if we choose the wrong one it can have a serious toll on our self-esteem. For example, a lot of women look at magazines and see these super skinny girls showing all their bones, and think that is what’s normal and good looking, or they see Kim Kardashian, or Kylie Jenner with her big lips; and what most of us don’t realize is that those looks are extremely unrealistic and photo shopped and if we try to compare ourselves to them we will feel worthless and ugly and not accepted by what society may see as “normal” or “sexy”. Reflected appraisal has a lot to do with how we compare ourselves to others and who those others may

Most of us are guilty of comparing ourselves to other people. It happens all the time in so many different situations and environments. Social comparisons take place in the workplace, at school, within friend groups and many other areas. The social comparison theory may give us more knowledge about why and how we perform these comparisons. Leon Festinger was the psychologist who first brought up the idea of the social comparison theory. According to the theory, there exists two types of comparisons- upward and downward. The upward comparisons involve comparing ourselves to other people who we believe hold an advantage in some way. Upward comparisons may cause people to want to change themselves to be on par with those of their comparisons.

Clarissa Silva article in the Huffington Post delves into social media’s impact on self-esteem. As a behavioral scientist, her interest in the matter relates to her field. She also gets the help of other experts Dr. Jennifer Rhodes, Natalia Lusinski, and Dr. Suzana Flores to help with her research. Silva states that “social media is linked to higher levels of loneliness, envy, anxiety, depression, narcissism and decreased social skills" (1). Then outlines her research findings using rhetorical appeals.

In order to understand the effect that social media has on self-esteem, we need to understand the construct of self-esteem. According to Coopersmith’s definition, self-esteem is “the evaluation which the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself: it expresses an attitude of approval and indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of the worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes the individual holds towards himself.” (p. 4–5) To put it more simply, self-esteem is the attitude that people have toward their own values.