Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China.
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Sreet, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2024 Jul 25;34(9). doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae372.
Individuals engage in upward or downward comparisons with superiors or inferiors, respectively. Social comparison is associated with social anxiety. Utilizing event-related potentials, we investigated how individuals with high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) evaluate self- versus other-outcomes in upward and downward comparison contexts. We found significant valence effects of self- or other-outcomes on feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 for both groups, with loss inducing larger FRN and smaller P300 than gain. In the early stage, the valence effect of other-outcomes was significant when LSA participants gained money, but not when they lost money, revealing a social comparison effect on FRN. Conversely, this valence effect was significant whether HSA participants gained or lost money. At the late stage, the valence effect of other-outcomes was significant when HSA or LSA participants gained money but not when they lost, revealing social comparison effects on the P300. Notably, only the social comparison effect in the LSA group was further moderated by comparison direction. These findings suggest that LSA participants engaged in social comparison throughout all evaluation stages, whereas HSA participants started at the late stage. Moreover, LSA participants were more sensitive to different comparison directions in the late stage.
个体分别与上级或下级进行向上或向下比较。社会比较与社交焦虑有关。我们利用事件相关电位研究了高社交焦虑（HSA）和低社交焦虑（LSA）个体在向上和向下比较情境下如何评价自我和他人的结果。我们发现两组的反馈相关负波（FRN）和 P300 都有显著的自我或他人结果的效价效应，损失引起的 FRN 比收益大，P300 比收益小。在早期，当 LSA 参与者获得金钱时，他人结果的效价效应是显著的，但当他们失去金钱时，FRN 上则没有出现这种效应，这表明 FRN 上存在社会比较效应。相反，当 HSA 参与者获得或失去金钱时，这种效价效应是显著的。在晚期，当 HSA 或 LSA 参与者获得金钱时，他人结果的效价效应是显著的，但当他们失去金钱时，P300 上则没有出现这种效应，这表明 P300 上存在社会比较效应。值得注意的是，只有 LSA 组的社会比较效应进一步受到比较方向的调节。这些发现表明，LSA 参与者在所有评价阶段都进行社会比较，而 HSA 参与者则从晚期开始。此外，LSA 参与者在晚期对不同的比较方向更敏感。
