Defensive Social Comparisons and The Constraints of Reality

Abstract

We argue that defensive interpretations (accept positive effects, discard negative effects) of social comparisons are constrained by reality, that is by perceived other-self similarity. Whereas moderately similar others may yield defensive contrast effects on self-evaluations, non-defensive contrast effects occur when other-self similarity is high and the relevance of the social comparisons is thus undisputed. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, whereas the self-evaluative impact of moderately dissimilar others is null, extremely dissimilar others yield assimilation. The findings support the interpretation-comparison perspective on social comparison processes and effects.