Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
Psychophysiology. 2021 May;58(5):e13798. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13798. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Social comparison occurs when individuals evaluate themselves in comparison with others. Social distance can influence the effect of social comparison. Using event-related potentials, this study examined how social distance affects the time course of outcome processing when individuals compare themselves with others in terms of ability. Participants were asked to perform a dot estimation task with a friend and a stranger. The results showed the effect of social distance on the N1, feedback-related negativity (FRN), and P300, such that the N1 and P300 were greater for the outcome when pairing with the stranger than when pairing with the friend, whereas the FRN was more negative for the outcome when pairing with the friend than when pairing with the stranger, suggesting that participants allocated more attention resources to the stranger's outcome during the early, automatic (the N1) and later, controlled processing stage (the P300). In addition, the FRN was sensitive to the valence of both self- and other-outcomes, and the FRN valence effect of self-outcome was modulated by friends' outcomes but not by strangers' outcomes, indicating that at the semi-automatic processing stage, closer social distance increases the likelihood of individuals being affected by the comparison targets. These results suggest that when comparing with others in the ability dimension, social distance plays a different role in different stages of outcome processing. At the primary stage of outcome processing, individuals are more likely to compare with close others in the ability dimension.
社会比较是指个体将自己与他人进行比较来评估自己。社会距离会影响社会比较的效果。本研究采用事件相关电位技术，考察了社会距离如何影响个体在能力方面与他人进行自我比较时的结果加工过程。参与者被要求与朋友和陌生人一起完成一个点估计任务。结果表明，社会距离对 N1、反馈相关负波（FRN）和 P300 均有影响，与陌生人配对时的 N1 和 P300 大于与朋友配对时，而 FRN 与朋友配对时比与陌生人配对时更负，表明参与者在早期自动（N1）和后期控制加工阶段（P300）中，对陌生人的结果分配了更多的注意资源。此外，FRN 对自我和他人结果的效价均敏感，而自我结果的 FRN 效价受朋友结果的调节，但不受陌生人结果的调节，表明在半自动加工阶段，更近的社会距离增加了个体受比较目标影响的可能性。这些结果表明，当在能力维度上与他人进行比较时，社会距离在结果加工的不同阶段扮演着不同的角色。在结果加工的初步阶段，个体更有可能在能力维度上与亲近的他人进行比较。
