Department of Psychology, School of Educational Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2012 Aug;85(2):145-52. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.06.004. Epub 2012 Jun 13.
Social comparison, in which people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing them with the opinions and abilities of others, is a central feature of human social life. Previous work has highlighted the importance of social comparison in reward processing. However, the time-course of the social comparison effect in outcome evaluation remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent brain activity is modulated by social comparison between an individual and their anonymous partner. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while the participants viewed their own and their partner's gain and loss outcomes based on their performance in a dot estimation task. Analysis of ERPs revealed that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude differences between gains and losses were not modulated by social comparison. In contrast, the P300 was larger for gains and showed an effect of social comparison independent of feedback valence. A late component, the late positive potential (LPP), was also modulated by social comparison, but it was insensitive to feedback valence. The data suggest that social comparison modulates outcome evaluation at several points in the information processing stream. Social comparison has no effect on the early coarse evaluation stage, but modulates the late cognitive/affective appraisal and re-appraisal processes. These findings provide neurophysiological evidence for the importance of social comparisons in outcome evaluations by the human brain.
社会比较是人类社会生活的一个核心特征，人们通过将自己的观点和能力与他人的观点和能力进行比较来评价自己的观点和能力。先前的工作强调了社会比较在奖励处理中的重要性。然而，在结果评价中社会比较效应的时间进程在很大程度上仍然未知。本研究旨在探讨个体与其匿名伙伴之间的社会比较在多大程度上调节了大脑活动。当参与者根据他们在点估计任务中的表现观看自己和他们的伙伴的收益和损失结果时，测量了事件相关电位（ERPs）。ERP 分析表明，反馈相关负波（FRN）振幅差异在收益和损失之间不受社会比较的调节。相比之下，P300 在收益时更大，并表现出与反馈效价无关的社会比较效应。一个晚期成分，晚期正电位（LPP）也受到社会比较的调节，但对反馈效价不敏感。这些数据表明，社会比较在信息处理流的几个点上调节了结果评价。社会比较对早期的粗略评价阶段没有影响，但调节了晚期的认知/情感评价和再评价过程。这些发现为社会比较在人类大脑对结果评价中的重要性提供了神经生理学证据。
