Social Comparison

Introduction
In the evaluation of ourselves, we have learned as human beings that the most efficient way for
us to evaluate ourselves is to use something empirical, something existent and closest to us as a
basis of this evaluation. Is it truly logical to do such a thing for us to simply evaluate ourselves?
There had been speculations during the first publication of the theory by Leon Festinger, as his
theory was, as he stated, reliant on the Plausibility of the matter or hypothesis, with Plausibility
meaning that whether if the theory or hypothesis fits one intuition or common sense. (Festinger,
1954) We will discuss the hypothesis of Festinger later on.
Social Comparison had been used as a Self-evaluation technique for quite some time. Ever since
Festingers first publication of this idea of Social comparison, it had been judged over the years,
receiving a lot of attention from social psychologists, evaluating whether or not it is an effective
way of self-evaluation. Throughout the previous years, it had created well over 100 journal
articles discussing and experimenting on how Social Comparison works. Also, different
psychologists have adapted this idea and placed it on their own theory, such as Tessers selfevaluation model (Tesser, 1986) and Tajfel and Turners social identity theory of groups (Tajfel
& Turner, 1979). Each has seen the effectiveness of Social Comparison when it comes to
evaluation of ones self, and also evaluation of others, of a group, or in fact, an entire race. With
this said, Social Comparison also created a basis for different other sub-topics, such as
Discrimination and Prejudice and also in the league of Attraction and Love.
Knowledge of ones self and others and essential for Social Comparison to work. When one
compares himself or herself to another, it is not merely comparing yourself to a stranger, rather it
is comparing yourself to something more with a basis, like someone you know, a friend or a

sibling, this makes Social Comparison effective and an efficient way of Self- Evaluation. Social
Comparison also leads to much diversity when it comes to the world. The different cultures and
races we have as human beings are affected by this idea, making each race and culture unique
from the other as much as possible. The differences of ones race might be seen as clear as
daylight, when compared to another culture. This huge cultural diversity could be seen by
primarily, east and west cultures. With this huge diversity at hand, it is inevitable to see the
people compare themselves with their race and culture when it comes to foreigners coming into
their land or them going to the foreigners land. However, many social psychologists raised the
idea that this makes people more aware of what they are and their distinction in the modern
world because as what sociologists say: If the world wasnt so diverse, you wouldnt know the
difference between yourself and your neighbors.
Social Comparison is one of the prime discussions because it brought out many ideas, many
other sub-topics that many psychologists look into everyday. Self-esteem is one of the primary
concerns of psychologists. They have seen that peoples self-esteem increases when they are with
someone less of who they are. This comparison they use to evaluate themselves soon affects selfesteem and how they behave in a certain social environment.
In our group we also interviewed an amount of people, asking them how they compare
themselves to their peers. Some were students who were running for counselors, another was a
granddaughter of a mayor, but the similarities they have is that in day to day basis, they have an
image to preserve and that they are always willing to be able to see the differences of themselves
from others.

Festingers Theory
As we have stated earlier, that this Theory of Festinger about Social comparison talks mainly
about the Plausibility of the matter, which relies on intuition and common sense. Festinger didnt
have much of an experiment to prove this theory of his, but many others have done so for him.
Festinger first of discussed the main idea of his Theory, which is that humans have the need and
drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities. (Festinger, 1954) Knowing the capabilities and
limitations of ones abilities is very essential in knowing oneself better. (Jones & Gerard, 1967).
It is important to know certain variations, capabilities, and limitations of oneself for one to
become an efficient learner. Festinger talked about self-evaluation as a need to measures ones
attribute with something observable, something they know, and something like them. With
having the Similarity hypothesis in Festingers mind, he was able to reason out that people do
not simply compare themselves with anyone, but they compare themselves with people that they
know and sometimes, people that they love or hate. When comparing ones self with someone
that we know, may it be friends or siblings, we could effectively and efficiently see our flaws and
our strengths. When we could see that our ability and performance might be less or better than
others, we could see certain uniqueness within us. Of course, there are certain flaws when it
comes to evaluating ones self to others, mainly because we cannot know precisely our skill
level, how good we are in what we do, or if our abilities are truly better than others, with this
said Festinger goes on and say that in no matter what we do, when we compare ourselves, may it
be positively or negatively, we would make ourselves better. This is called the Upwards Social
Comparison, in which we try to look at ourselves to be better, or at least willing to be better
than others.

Different ideas sprouted up from Social Comparison. As stated earlier, the need to have different
attributes and abilities from others leads to going against others ideas. The need to have the
same traits with friends and peers, leads to uniformity and the need to be better than others lead
to competition. As we compare ourselves with others we make decisions like these everyday,
like, Should I be more like them or be less like them? or, Could I be better than them?.
Festinger discussed also about various amount of topics such as the darker sides of Social
Comparison. He said that, The holding of incorrect opinions or inaccurate appraisals of ones
abilities can be punishing or even fatal in many situtations. (Festinger, 1954). Festinger
discussed that, as much as possible, we shouldnt be biased with our evaluation, that we should
seek a reliable foundation for us to compare ourselves from others or else it would lead us to an
inaccurate misconception and misunderstanding of ourselves and also of others.
Attraction, Friendship and Intimacy
The need to belong for human beings will always be there. We are motivated to bond with others
and to socialize with others and to be in relationships that provides outgoing and positive
interactions. We always want to be with people who are similar like us.
The matching phenomenon states that we look for people who are a good match with our
traits, which usually means similarities. In social comparison we could identify ourselves and the
people that we would like to be with. It is essential in our nature to be a part of a group and
social comparison helps us find this group of people.
Social comparison requires us to have friends, because first of all, we compare ourselves with
people that we know. We cannot compare ourselves to mere strangers because it wouldnt be an

effective and efficient way of social identity. We need a foundation for us to improve to be better
and our friends help us to such things.
The Darker Side of Social Comparison, Discrimination and Stereotypes
Upward Social Comparison gives us the ability to strive, but also, it gives us the ability to put
others down. When we compare ourselves to others, it doesnt usually lead to positive outcomes
in society, sometimes it would lead to unhealthy relationships, and at some point, hatred in other
cultures or race. Prejudice would be the prime point where it all starts. A certain interaction with
one person in a certain race, could lead to a Social Comparison between yourself and the other
individual. If it was a negative interaction it would lead to negative outcomes. At a certain rate, it
leads to stereotypes, thinking that these types of people are the weaker type and that your race
and you are better than them. Next would be the action, which is discrimination. We would start
to hate that certain race and those set of people. Racism would then start and then it would
spread to the persons peers.
Festinger discussed that social comparison shouldnt be done with people whom we dont know
fully about and that it should not generalize a certain population. He discussed that we shouldnt
be biased with our evaluations, that one negative interaction shouldnt be a main basis of Social
Comparison or else it would lead to an influx of wrong information to a set of people, which
would then lead to stereotyping and discrimination of a certain race.

The Interviews
Janet Dawn Abines- Tingog Counselor
She explained herself in a comparison in whom she was before and who she is now. She used to
compare herself to others before, because primarily of insecurities. She was didnt have
confidence in who she was before, so that was why she compared herself to others. She
discussed that when she compared herself to others, it was a let down most of the times, because
simply, she couldnt get to their standards. Now that she lessens her comparison to her peers, she
was able to gain more confidence that was why she was able to run for counselor.
Running for counselor her confidence increased because more people see her for who she is. She
stated that when one tries to reach out to someone, one must become like the moon, and like the
moon you must keep some parts of you hidden. As a counselor she didnt see herself as
something above the student body, rather as a participant, as a voice of the student body. She
doesnt compare herself to be better than them; she thinks that shes a part of them. It gave her a
boost of confidence to achieve better things in life.
Angelou Peig- Stand Counselor
She has friends with the same interests, this makes her much comfortable. She thinks of herself
as someone who mingles well with her friends. She thinks that shes more confident and more
optimistic than her friends, as shes the one to keep their hopes up most of the time.
She never looks at herself as someone with authority. She looks at the student body and tries her
best to fit in. Her circle of friends grew when she ran for counselor and she tries her best to be as

real as possible. She ran not for fame, but she ran to make a difference. She does not see herself
as a counselor but simply, as a student.
She thought at first people are apathetic to her, but now that she interacted more with them she
thinks that people do their best to get involved. It was fulfilling to see people saying hi to her,
that she starts to make more friends.
Krista Jessyl Bollozos Gabucan- Granddaughter of the Mayor of Catarman, Camiguin
She sees herself as a regular person that needs to pretend that she could live up to her familys
expectations and hype. Also, that was always the problem because shes the only girl in the
family and a lot of things are expected from her.
She thinks that the constituents of her grandfather judge her behind her back. That shes not who
she really is, that shes only acting like that just to be a show-off. It is and still hard for her to be
herself when shes around her family. The peoples expectations are high and that she doesnt
want to embarrass her family.
Being the granddaughter of a mayor has its pros and cons. The pros being that you have a lot of
connections and sources. You have a massive privilege that some people dont have. The cons
are that she cant really be herself. Shes always being watched and she has to act out what her
parents want at some point.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201304/got-happiness-socialcomparison-theory-can-help

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/201405/keeping-appearances