This brainstorming experiment assessed the extent to which idea exposure produced cognitive stimulation and social comparison effects. One hundred and sixty participants were exposed to either a high or low number of common or unique ideas. The participants likelihood of engaging in social comparison processes (high or low) was also manipulated through instructional sets. The results indicated ...

a r t i c l e i n f o People vary in their tendencies to compare themselves to others, an individual difference variable called social comparison orientation (SCO). Social networking sites provide information about others that can be used for social comparison. The goal of the present set of studies was to explore the relationship between SCO, Facebook use, and negative psychological outcomes. ...

Social comparison (i.e., body, eating, exercise) and body surveillance were tested as mediators of the thin-ideal internalization-body dissatisfaction relationship in the context of an elaborated sociocultural model of disordered eating. Participants were 219 college women who completed two questionnaire sessions 3 months apart. The cross-sectional elaborated sociocultural model (i.e., includin...

Successful navigation of our complex social world requires the capability to recognize and judge the relative status of others. Hence, social comparison processes are of great importance in our interactions, informing us of our relative standing and in turn potentially motivating our behavior. However, so far few studies have examined in detail how social comparison can influence interpersonal ...

If people's goals and evaluative standards were aligned, then individuals with mastery-based goals should, theoretically, primarily rely on temporal comparison information (i.e., on how they performed relative to before). In contrast, individuals with performance-based goals should rely on social comparison information (i.e., on how they performed relative to others). However, across three stud...

To identify what features of online social networks can increase physical activity, we conducted a 4-arm randomized controlled trial in 2014 in Philadelphia, PA. Students (n = 790, mean age = 25.2) at an university were randomly assigned to one of four conditions composed of either supportive or competitive relationships and either with individual or team incentives for attending exercise class...

Online purchase has become a mainstream channel for modern consumers to acquire goods and services. With the emergence of Web 2.0, consumers are now able to view and exchange product information with trusted friends instead of strangers. The result is that the effects of social comparison can be naturally created while consumers communicate with their friends online. However, while the effects ...

The current study examines the construct of relationship social comparison orientation, which deals with an individual’s propensity to compare his or her romantic relationship to that of others’ romantic relationships on various dimensions, in both dating and married samples. The study also examines the role of relationship uncertainty and self uncertainty as an inducement or precondition to re...

This study explores the influence of different social reference points and different comparison group sizes on risky decision-making. Participants were presented with a scenario describing an exam, and presented with the opportunity of making a risky decision in the context of different information provided about the performance of their peers. We found that behavior was influenced, not only by...