Neural mechanisms of social comparison in subthreshold depression.

Social comparison is a common phenomenon in our daily life, through which people get to know themselves, and plays an important role in depression. In this study, event-related potential (ERP) was used to explore the temporal course of social comparison processing in the subthreshold depression group. Electrophysiological recordings were acquired from 30 subthreshold depressed individuals and 31 healthy individuals while they conducted the adapted dot estimation task. The ERP results revealed that there was a significant difference of feedback-related negativity (FRN) in the process of social comparison. Especially only in the subthreshold depression, the FRN amplitudes of worse off than some, better off than many comparisons were larger than those of upward comparisons and downward comparisons. Our results suggested that the abnormal reward sensitivity for worse off than some, better off than many comparisons might be prodromal symptoms in the subthreshold depression.

Competition influences outcome processing involving social comparison: An ERP study.

In a complicated social context, outcome evaluation involves not only oneself but also others in relation to the self (i.e., social comparison). Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have investigated the processing of social comparison-related outcomes when one's interests are independent of the interests of others (i.e., noncompetition circumstances). However, it is unclear how social comparison-related outcomes are processed in the brain when there are conflicts of interest between oneself and others (i.e., competition circumstances). To address this issue, participants in the current study were asked to perform an attentional task with several peers and were subsequently presented with self-related outcomes (i.e., the performance difference between the current trial and several preceding trials) and social comparison-related outcomes (i.e., the performance difference between oneself and their peer). Importantly, rewards and punishments were based on social comparison-related outcomes in the competition condition and on self-related outcomes in the noncompetition condition. ERP results revealed that in the competition condition, positive outcomes involving social comparison elicited a greater P300 response than negative outcomes, whereas this effect was not observed in the noncompetition condition. Additionally, there was generally a larger late positive potential (LPP) response to negative outcomes involving social comparison than to positive outcomes only when one obtained a self-related positive outcome in the competition condition. These findings suggest that competition might strengthen outcome processing involving social comparison at late time ranges relying on self-related outcomes to some extent.

Dimensional and social comparisons in a health fitness context.

Whereas prior research has found that people are influenced by both internal (e.g., dimensional) and external (e.g., social) comparative information in academic contexts, we experimentally examined the influence of such comparisons in a health fitness context. Participants engaged in "physical and mental fitness" tasks (e.g., performing sit-ups, memorizing words) and were randomly assigned to receive (1) social comparative feedback indicating their physical or mental fitness was better or worse than their peers or (2) dimensional comparative feedback indicating their performance in a target domain (e.g., mental fitness) was better or worse than a referent domain (e.g., physical fitness). Results showed that participants who made upward comparisons had lower fitness self-evaluations and more negative (less positive) emotional reactions to the feedback for the target domain, with the effect being nominally stronger for social than dimensional comparisons and for mental than physical fitness. Findings are discussed in the context of comparison-based models and health behavior theories.

Fathers' use of social media for social comparison is associated with their food parenting practices.

Over 85% of parents use social media; however, limited research has investigated the associations between parental social media use and food parenting practices. The objectives of this study were to: 1) describe how mothers and fathers use social media focused on topics related to child feeding and family meals; and 2) examine associations between parental social media use focused on child feeding and family meals and mothers' and fathers' food parenting practices. Data were obtained from 179 mothers and 116 fathers of children aged 3-8 years enrolled in a family-based obesity prevention intervention. We used descriptive statistics to describe parents' social media use in relation to child feeding and family meals and linear regressions with generalized estimating equations to explore associations between parents' social media use and food parenting practices. Models were stratified by parent gender and adjusted for household income, parent ethnicity, parent age, child sex, and intervention status. A higher percent of mothers than fathers reported using social media to seek information related to child feeding and family meals (64.8% mothers; 25.0% fathers) and to share and compare family meals and food choices (41.9% mothers; 19.8% fathers). While social media use was not associated with food parenting practices in mothers, fathers' social media use to share and compare family meals and food choices was associated with negative food parenting practices, i.e., greater use of food for emotional regulation (ß = 0.37, p = 0.02) and greater use of food for reward (ß = 0.34, p = 0.02). Study results can inform strategies to promote healthy social media use among parents of young children.

The neuroscience of social comparison and competition.

The study of competition from a social comparison perspective offers valuable insights into the neuroscience of social judgment and decision making under uncertainty. When engaging in social comparison, individuals seek and assess information about similarities or differences between others and themselves, in large part to improve their self-evaluation. By providing information about one's relative position, abilities, outcomes, and more, social comparisons can inform competitive judgments and decisions. People reasonably turn to social comparisons to reduce uncertainty before, during, and after competition. However, the extent to which they do so and the behavioral consequences of social comparisons often fail to match the potential benefits of improved self-evaluation. An examination of the developing neuroscience of social comparison and competition in light of the behavioral evidence reveals numerous questions that merit further investigation.

Are you better than me? Social comparisons in carrion crows (Corvus corone).

Comparing oneself to others is a key process in humans that allows individuals to gauge their performances and abilities and thus develop and calibrate their self-image. Little is known about its evolutionary foundations. A key feature of social comparison is the sensitivity to other individuals' performance. Recent studies on primates produced equivocal results, leading us to distinguish between a 'strong' variant of the social comparison hypothesis formulated for humans and a 'weak' variant found in non-human primates that would comprise some elements of human social comparison. Here, we focus on corvids that are distantly related to primates and renowned for their socio-cognitive skills. We were interested in whether crows' task performances were influenced (i) by the presence of a conspecific co-actor performing the same discrimination task and (ii) by the simulated acoustic cues of a putative co-actor performing better or worse than themselves. Crows reached a learning criterion quicker when tested simultaneously as compared to when tested alone, indicating a facilitating effect of social context. The performance of a putative co-actor influenced their performance: crows were better at discriminating familiar images when their co-actor was better than they were. Standard extremity (how pronounced the difference was between the performance of the subject and that of the co-actor), and category membership (affiliation status and sex), of the putative co-actors had no effect on their performance. Our findings are in line with the 'weak' variant of social comparison and indicate that elements of human social comparison can be found outside of primates.

Chronic social comparison elicits depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in male rats.

Social comparison is a fundamental human characteristic; however, long-term social comparison may induce psychological stress and can lead to depression and anxiety. Recent studies have shown that nonhuman primates compare themselves with others; however, no studies have investigated whether social comparisons exist among rodents. In the present study, we established a rat model of social comparison. This model was subsequently used to examine the effects of the differential environment of a partner on depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in male rats, as well as to assess the changes in serum, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and dorsal hippocampus brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels induced by long-term social comparison. Compared to rats whose partners were exposed to the same environment, rats whose partners were exposed to two combined enriched environmental stimuli for 14 days showed significantly decreased social novelty preference and sucrose consumption. No anxiety-like behaviors were observed. Rats whose partners were exposed to one enriched environment for 31 days showed significantly increased immobility time in the forced swimming test, and significantly decreased time spent in the center area in the open-field test. Further, rats whose partners were exposed to one enriched environment for 31 days showed lower BDNF levels in the mPFC and dorsal hippocampus, but not following partner exposure for 14 days. These results suggest that social comparisons exist in rats and can induce psychosocial stress and other negative affect. This model will not only provide the possibility to reveal the neurobiological basis of the emotional impact of social comparison, but could also be used to confirm the conservative evolutionary characteristics of social comparison as a behavioral attribute.

Altered Putamen Activation for Social Comparison-Related Feedback in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study.

INTRODUCTION: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by abnormal processing of performance-related social stimuli. Previous studies have shown altered emotional experiences and activations of different sub-regions of the striatum during processing of social stimuli in patients with SAD. However, whether and to what extent social comparisons affect behavioural and neural responses to feedback stimuli in patients with SAD is unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To address this issue, emotional ratings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses were assessed while patients suffering from SAD and healthy controls (HC) were required to perform a choice task and received performance feedback (correct, incorrect, non-informative) that varied in relation to the performance of fictitious other participants (a few, half, or most of others had the same outcome). RESULTS: Across all performance feedback conditions, fMRI analyses revealed reduced activations in bilateral putamen when feedback was assumed to be received by only a few compared to half of the other participants in patients with SAD. Nevertheless, analysis of rating data showed a similar modulation of valence and arousal ratings in patients with SAD and HC depending on social comparison-related feedback. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests altered neural processing of performance feedback depending on social comparisons in patients with SAD.

The effects of social-media based social comparison information and similarity mindsets on COVID-19 vaccination uptake cognitions.

Vaccine hesitancy-delays in vaccine uptake when one is readily available-is an important public health issue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of psychosocial factors in influencing cognitions and behaviors related to vaccine uptake have been examined. Using an online sample of unvaccinated U.S. adults (N = 300), we examined the influence of COVID-19-related social media-based comparison information (e.g., others' attitudes about taking the vaccine)-as well as the moderating impact of (dis)similarity mindsets and indirect influence of affective associations, norm perceptions, and self-evaluations of efficacy-on vaccination uptake intentions. Participants reported higher intentions for vaccine uptake following exposure to cautious comparison models (e.g., those that engaged in health prevention behaviors, intended to get vaccinated) versus risky comparison models (e.g., those who did not engage in health prevention behaviors, did not intend to get vaccinated) and neutral comparison models and this effect was indirect through positive affective associations about taking the vaccine. There were no main or interactive effects of (dis)similarity mindsets. Understanding the psychosocial factors that influence health cognitions and behaviors in the context of an infectious disease pandemic will advance theoretical development and aid in creating interventions targeting vaccine uptake.

Identification with and Social Comparison to Teen Mothers on Teen Mom Over Time.

This study replicates from a cross-sectional study about how young Latina teen viewers identify with and socially compare to teen mothers on MTV's Teen Mom over time. Identification and social comparison effects on attitudes toward teen pregnancy were assessed among the same group of Latina teen viewers at two different time points approximately one year apart. Results determined that upward social comparison and identification were associated with positive attitudes toward teen pregnancy in eighth grade, whereas downward social comparison was associated with negative attitudes toward teen pregnancy in ninth grade. Implications for teen mom reality programming audiences are discussed.

Leveraging Upward Social Comparison in Social Media to Promote Healthy Parenting.

Children's health is heavily influenced by parenting practices that promote healthy eating and physical activities. The present study examined how upward social comparison in social media may facilitate parents' motivation to perform healthy parenting practices. We conducted a 2 (social comparison direction: upward vs. downward) x 2 (similarity: similar vs. dissimilar) experiment. The results indicated that parents who saw upward comparison targets, that is, other children with better eating and exercising practices on social media, were more likely to assimilate their own children with them than parents who saw downward comparison targets. This, in turn, increased the parents' self-evaluation and positively impacted their intention to engage in healthy parenting practices in the future. The study expands the research of social comparison to the domain of comparison of extended self. The empirical evidence demonstrates the positive impact of upward social comparison through assimilation and self-evaluation.

Improving Body Satisfaction Through Fitness App Use: Explicating the Role of Social Comparison, Social Network Size, and Gender.

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent worldwide, fueling the highly lucrative diet and plastic surgery industry, with many adverse outcomes. Yet, limited attention has been dedicated to noninvasive interventions that effectively enhance body satisfaction. We argue that, by altering the target of the social comparison process, people can shift their focus from body appearance to physical activity level. The present study investigated whether social comparison in terms of physical activity level provided by fitness apps could affect users' body satisfaction. A survey was conducted with 643 users of WeRun, the Chinese leading mobile fitness app. Subsequent analyses revealed that both upward and downward social comparison mediated the positive relationship between fitness app use and body satisfaction. Moreover, the users' social network size and gender played a moderating role in the social comparison processes. Fitness app use was positively related to downward comparison for male users; social network size moderated the relationship between fitness app use and upward comparison for female users. The utility of fitness apps in mitigating body dissatisfaction is also discussed.

The Impact of Social Comparison via Social Media on Maternal Mental Health, within the Context of the Intensive Mothering Ideology: A Scoping Review of the Literature.

Social media platforms communicate narratives of individuals, specifically the narrative of motherhood. The ascendant mothering narrative in Western society is Intensive Mothering Ideology (IMI). These ideals, norms, and practices set unattainable standards. Highly romanticized versions of motherhood portrayed on social media tend to stimulate social comparisons among women potentially impacting their well-being. This scoping review seeks to examine the literature that identifies the impact of social comparison via social media on maternal mental health, within the context of IMI. The methodology by Arksey and O'Malley guided the approach to creating this scoping review. Systematic searches of articles published within the previous 10 years were conducted in Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, and PsycINFO. Searches aimed to capture concepts regarding social media as a medium for social comparison, and transmission of intensive mothering ideologies ultimately impacting maternal mental health. Articles were screened at the title and abstract level first, followed by application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Nine articles were selected for inclusion in this scoping review. The studies were published in seven peer-reviewed journals, from four different countries with most originating from the United States. Results revealed that making social comparisons after exposure to intensive mothering ideas negatively impacted maternal well-being. Within the context of the Social Comparison Theory (SCT), maternal characteristics like self-esteem and maternal comparison orientation (MCO) seem to mediate the impact that social media has on maternal mental health. Social media communicates highly idealized motherhood mores, and critical analyses should focus on how mothers use social media.

Body appreciation as a protective factor in women with fibromyalgia: an examination of associations between pain perception, social comparison and psychological distress.

OBJECTIVES: While symptoms of fibromyalgia (FM) and psychological distress are directly linked, indirect effects are also apparent. The aim of the present study was to develop an explanatory model for the effect of FM on women's psychological distress and identify possible protective and risk factors. METHODS: This study comprised of total of 293 women aged 20-68 (M= 34.3, SD = 12.1), of which 141 were women with FM and 152 healthy peers (HP), who completed questionnaires regarding demographic characteristics, anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), body appreciation (BAS-2), social comparison strategies, and pain assessment (SF-MPQ). RESULTS: FM patients demonstrated higher psychological distress, i.e., depression and anxiety and lower body appreciation. Body appreciation significantly correlated with social comparison coping strategies. Body appreciation and social comparison strategies mediated the link between FM and psychological distress. Among FM patients, body appreciation moderated the links between pain intensity and aspects of social comparison strategies, thus explaining the link between pain intensity and psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: Women with FM demonstrated higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and lower body appreciation compared to HP. The unique role of body appreciation in moderating the indirect link between pain and psychological distress appears to be protective.

Instagram Use and Mental Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison.

ABSTRACT: Instagram has grown in popularity among young adults and adolescents and is currently the second-favorite social network in the world. Research on its relationship to mental well-being is still relatively small and has yielded contradictory results. This study explores the relationship between time spent on Instagram and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and disordered eating attitudes in a nonclinical sample of female Instagram users aged 18-35 years. In addition, it explores the mediating role of social comparison. A total of 1172 subjects completed a one-time-only online survey. Three different mediation analyses were performed to test the hypotheses that social comparison on Instagram mediates the association time spent on Instagram with depressive symptoms (model 1), self-esteem (model 2), and disordered eating attitudes (model 3). All three models showed that the relationship between intensity of Instagram use and the respective mental health indicator is completely mediated by the tendency for social comparison on Instagram.

Social comparison orientation mediates the association between HEXACO and self-presentation.

Various researchers have investigated the personality correlates of defensive and assertive self-presentation. Yet, only a few studies go beyond the direct relationships and examine the underlying mechanism. The current study examines whether the social comparison orientation (SCO) mediates the relationship between personality and self-presentation. We also tested whether our proposed model is invariant across genders. We collected data from 496 individuals using the HEXACO personality inventory, the self-presentation tactic scale, and Iowa-Netherlands SCO scale to test these hypotheses. The path analysis indicated that the partial mediation model provides the best fit to the data (root-mean-square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.08, comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.97, standardized root mean squared residual [SRMR] = 0.026). While honesty-humility (ß = -0.43) had the strongest total effect on assertive self-presentation, emotionality (ß = 0.34) had the strongest total effect on defensive self-presentation among other HEXACO dimensions. Additionally, we conducted a multigroup path analysis to test the structural invariance, and the findings indicate that the relationships are invariant across women and men (Δχ2 [14] = 11.83, p = 0.61). These findings suggest that the association between personality and self-presentation might not be straightforward. The findings are discussed in relation to facet and factor level associations among the variables, self-presentation strategies, and gender roles.

Understanding the causes and consequences of envy among nurses: A scoping review.

AIM: This scoping review presents an overview of the causes and consequences of envy among clinical nurses. BACKGROUND: Many nurses in the United States have in recent years left their permanent positions for temporary agency assignments that pay higher salaries. Although greed seems like a likely explanation for the rise in travel nursing, humans tend to have a particular interest in wanting what others have. EVALUATION: A five-stage scoping review framework and the PRISMA-ScR checklist guided this review. KEY ISSUES: Social comparison and malicious envy are prevalent among nurses. Envy is a powerful emotion that affects human communication and behaviour in organizations. Scholars have underexplored the potential benefits of leveraging benign envy in the nursing context. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the relational nature of envy. Social comparison and envy provide an insight that suggests that nurses who change jobs are not necessarily greedy. They may be seeking the right mix of tangible and intangible rewards. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Greed and envy can motivate nurses to change jobs. Although envy and greed may produce the same outcome, they are qualitatively different. The motivation to change jobs alludes to nurses' desire to have better control of their professional and personal lives.

Reduced network integration in default mode and executive networks is associated with social and personal optimism biases.

An optimism bias refers to the belief in good things happening to oneself in the future with a higher likelihood than is justified. Social optimism biases extend this concept to groups that one identifies with. Previous literature has found that both personal and social optimism biases are linked to brain structure and task-related brain function. Less is known about whether optimism biases are also expressed in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Forty-two participants completed questionnaires on dispositional personal optimism (which is not necessarily unjustified) and comparative optimism (i.e., whether we see our own future as being rosier than a comparison person's future) and underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. They further undertook an imaginative soccer task in order to assess both their personal and social optimism bias. We tested associations of these data with RSFC within and between 13 networks, using sparse canonical correlation analyses (sCCAs). We found that the primary sCCA component was positively connected to personal and social optimism bias and negatively connected to dispositional personal pessimism. This component was associated with (a) reduced integration of the default mode network, (b) reduced integration of the central executive and salience networks, and (c) reduced segregation between the default mode network and the central executive network. Our finding that optimism biases are linked to RSFC indicates that they may be rooted in neurobiology that exists outside of concurrent tasks. This poses questions as to what the limits of the malleability of such biases may be.

The effects of social comparison and depressive mood on adolescent social decision-making.

BACKGROUND: Based on social comparison theory, two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of depression and social comparison on adolescents, using the ultimatum game (UG). METHODS: Before the formal experiment began, a preliminary experiment tested the effectiveness of social comparison settings. This study used the UG paradigm to explore adolescents' social decision-making in the context of gain and loss through two experiments. These experiments were designed as a 2 (group: depressive mood group, normal mood group) × 2 (social comparison: upward, downward) × 3 (fairness level: fair 5:5, unfair 3:7, extremely unfair 1:9) three-factor hybrid study. RESULTS: (1) The fairer the proposal was, the higher the sense of fairness participants felt, and the higher their acceptance rate. (2) The acceptance rate of the participants for downward social comparison was significantly higher than that for upward social comparison, but there was no difference in fairness perception between the two social comparisons. (3) Under the context of gain, the acceptance rate of the depressive mood group was higher than that of the normal mood group, but there was no difference in the acceptance rate between the depressive mood group and the normal mood group under the loss context. Depressive mood participants had more feelings of unfairness in the contexts of both gain and loss. (4) The effects of depressive mood, social comparison and the fairness level of distribution on social decision-making interact. CONCLUSIONS: The interaction of social comparison, depressive mood and proposal type demonstrates that besides one's emotion, cognitive biases and social factors can also have an effect on social decision-making. These findings indicate that behavioral decision boosting may provide an avenue for appropriate interventions in helping to guide adolescents to make social decisions.

Who's more generous than me? Children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons.

We examined the development of children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons (with an average peer). Results suggest that when comparing themselves with an average other in the abstract (i.e., without reference to actual behavior), elementary school children (aged 6-12 years) demonstrated the better than average (BTA) effect of perceiving themselves as more prosocial than their average peer (Study 1). However, when they evaluated other children's prosociality (sharing), after experiencing an actual opportunity to share their endowment with others (Studies 2 and 3), the younger children (at first-grade level) exhibited the worse than average (WTA) effect in that they assumed that their peers would act more generously than themselves. Task difficulty predicted relative self-evaluations across all examined ages, such that greater difficulty was related to a lower BTA effect (or a greater WTA effect). However, whereas the older children used abstract difficulty perceptions to evaluate themselves relative to others, the younger children's evaluations were affected only by the difficulty that they themselves experienced. In all age groups, the BTA effect was driven mostly by participants who were above the mean in the extent of their sharing, whereas the WTA effect was driven by those who shared below the mean of their age group.