Social Comparison Theory

Social Comparison Theory focuses on the human need to self-evaluate.  Introduced in 1954 by Leon Festinger, the theory explains how humans, in order to evaluate themselves, will compare themselves to others.  This is not a passive act; humans are actively engaged in comparing themselves to others through social interactions, media consumption, and other ways.  There are two ways that humans can compare themselves to others: upward comparison and downward comparison.


Upward comparison is where a person compares themselves to someone that they see as being better or more elite than themselves.  They do this in order to find out what they need to do to be more like the person they are comparing themselves to.  An example of this would be a woman looking at a model in a magazine.  The woman would compare certain attributes that she has to that of the model.  The woman would then make changes in her lifestyle to try and achieve the ideal that she sees in the model.  Many people claim that these upward comparisons are healthy because they push them to better themselves, but in reality upward comparisons have been linked to the development of negative attributes.


Downward comparison is where a person will compare themselves to a person that they perceive as being worse off than themselves.  In a sense this is a method of inflating one's ego.  An example of downward comparison would be a student comparing their grade on a test with another student who did worse than them.  Downward comparison helps a person foster positive feelings about oneself.


Studies have found that the media plays a huge role in social comparisons.  Researchers studying this topic have found: 

"[I]n most cases women tend to engage in upward social comparisons with a target other, which results in more negative feelings about the self. The majority of women have a daily opportunity to make upward comparison by measuring themselves against some form of societal ideal. Social comparisons have become a relevant mechanism for learning about the appearance-related social expectations among peers and for evaluating the self in terms of those standards" (Body Image, 647)

Social Comparison Theory is a very interesting topic, and so we've included a few source links of articles that address a multiplicity of issues stemming from the theory.  Check them out and leave your thoughts about the subject in the comments below.


Sources: 
• Social Comparison and Body Image: Attractiveness Comparisons to Models and Peers Among Adolescent Girls and Boys
• Exploration of Social Comparison Theory’s Application for Women Who Engage in Lifelong Habitual Indoor Tanning
• When Better-Than-Others Compare Upward
• Social Comparison Theory and Deception in the Interpersonal Exchange of Consumption Information
• Social combination models, persuasive arguments theory, social comparison theory, and choice shift
• wikipedia.org