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Social Comparison Information (social + comparison_information)
Selected AbstractsNeuroticism and responses to social comparison among cancer patientsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2009Abraham P. Buunk Abstract The present study examined how the effects of three audiotapes containing different types of social comparison information on the mood of cancer patients depended on the level of neuroticism. On the procedural tape, a man and woman discussed the process of radiation therapy, on the emotion tape, they focussed on emotional reactions to their illness and treatment, while on the coping tape they focussed on the way they had been coping. A validation study among 115 students showed that the tapes were perceived as they were intended. The main study was conducted among 226 patients who were about to undergo radiation therapy. Compared to patients in the control group, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the procedural and the coping tape. Furthermore, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the coping tape than to the emotion tape. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] When nothing compares to me: how defensive motivations and similarity shape social comparison effectsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2007Diederik A. Stapel While similarity typically breeds social comparison, all information gained from social comparisons is not equally influential. Three studies illustrate the situations in which individuals defensively interpret social comparison information such that they incorporate information that reflects positively on the self and disregard negative information. Study 1 extends previous research to show that self-threat broadens the conditions under which defensive interpretations occur to include those in which similarity is ambiguous. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that defensive interpretations are less likely to occur when individuals are affirmed or when the comparison information is unimportant. These findings suggest that the impact of social comparisons on self-views is determined by both similarity of comparison targets and the motives of the perceiver. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Responses to hedonically conflicting social comparisons: comparing happy and unhappy peopleEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2001Sonja Lyubomirsky Two laboratory studies explored how self-rated unhappy and happy students balance hedonically conflicting social comparison information, and tested whether unhappy students would be relatively more sensitive to hedonically consistent unfavorable information. In both studies, students working in teams of four competed against one other team on a novel verbal task. First, unhappy participants showed relatively greater sensitivity to undiluted unfavorable feedback,about group standing (e.g. your team ,lost'; Study 1) and about group and individual standing (e.g. your team lost and you were placed last; Study 2). Second, unhappy students were more reactive than happy students to individual social comparison information in the context of relative group feedback. In Study 1, the moods and self-assessments of unhappy individuals (but not happy ones) after news of team defeat appeared to be buffered by the additional news of personal triumph. In Study 2, unhappy students showed relatively larger decreases in mood and ability assessments after unfavorable than after favorable individual feedback (i.e. ranking last versus first), regardless of whether they additionally learned that their teams had won or lost. The role of students' attributions and perceptions of their personal contribution was also explored. Implications of these findings for the links among social comparison, cognitive processes, and hedonic consequences are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Neuroticism and Social Comparison Orientation as Moderators of Affective Responses to Social Comparison at WorkJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2001Bram P. Buunk In a study among 72 nurses, the affective consequences of social comparison were examined and related to neuroticism (N) and to social comparison orientation (SCO). Participants were confronted with a bogus interview with an upward versus a downward comparison target. Positive affect and identification were higher, and negative affect was lower, in the upward than in the downward comparison condition. Independent of their SCO, the higher individuals were in N, the less they identified with the upward comparison target, the more they identified with the downward comparison target, and the less positive affect they showed following confrontation with the upward comparison target. In contrast, independent of their level of N, the higher individuals were in SCO, the more negative affect they showed following confrontation with the downward comparison target. The effects on negative affect stayed the same when controlling for positive affect, and the effects on positive affect stayed the same when controlling for negative affect. These effects were also obtained when perceived direction was used as a predictor instead of the experimentally manipulated direction. It is concluded that, although N and SCO are correlated, these variables seem to have independent and distinct effects upon the responses to social comparison information. [source] When Better Is Worse: Envy and the Use of DeceptionNEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008Simone Moran Abstract In this article, we describe how envy motivates deception. We find that individuals who envy a counterpart are more likely to deceive them than are individuals who do not envy their counterpart. Across both a scenario and a laboratory study, we explore the influence of envy in a negotiation setting. Negotiations represent a domain in which social comparisons are prevalent and deception poses a particularly important concern. In our studies, we induce envy by providing participants with upward social comparison information. We find that upward social comparisons predictably trigger envy, and that envy promotes deception by increasing psychological benefits and decreasing psychological costs of engaging in deceptive behavior. We discuss implications of our results with respect to negotiations and the role of emotions in ethical decision making. [source] Social influence: The role of self-monitoring when making social comparisonsPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 11 2006Richard J. Harnish The self-monitoring construct (Snyder, 1987) may prove to be useful when examining who individuals choose when making social comparisons. In Study 1, the self-monitoring propensity of individuals who provide social comparison information and the self-monitoring propensity of individuals who use such information were examined. Results supported the hypothesis that high self-monitors have advisors (i.e., individuals to whom they first turn for advice) that are high in self-monitoring, whereas low self-monitors have advisors that are low in self-monitoring. In Study 2, high and low self-monitors identified their advisors as experts and generalists. Results supported the hypothesis that high self-monitors have more expert advisors than low self-monitors. The findings are discussed in terms of the implications for consumer decision making. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||