Johnson Camille S, Stapel Diederik A
Graduate School of Business Behavioral Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007 Jun;92(6):1051-67. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1051.
In 3 studies, the authors explored the relation between threatening upward social comparisons and performance. In an initial study, participants were exposed to comparison targets who either threatened or boosted self-evaluations and then completed a performance task. Participants exposed to the threatening target performed better than those in a control group, whereas those exposed to the nonthreatening target performed worse. In Study 2, self-affirmation prior to comparison with threatening targets eliminated performance improvements. In Study 3, performance improvements were found only when the performance domain was different from the domain of success of the comparison target. These boundary conditions suggest that increases in performance following social comparison arise from individuals' motivations to maintain and repair self-evaluations. Implications for the study of the behavioral consequences of social comparison are discussed.
在3项研究中，作者探讨了具有威胁性的向上社会比较与表现之间的关系。在最初的一项研究中，参与者接触到的比较对象要么会威胁到他们的自我评价，要么会提升他们的自我评价，然后完成一项表现任务。接触到具有威胁性比较对象的参与者比对照组的参与者表现得更好，而接触到无威胁性比较对象的参与者表现得更差。在研究2中，在与具有威胁性的比较对象进行比较之前进行自我肯定，消除了表现的提升。在研究3中，只有当表现领域与比较对象的成功领域不同时，才发现表现有所提升。这些边界条件表明，社会比较后表现的提高源于个体维持和修复自我评价的动机。文中还讨论了这些研究结果对社会比较行为后果研究的启示。
