Relationships between the frequency of social comparisons and self-concept clarity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression

Abstract

Previous work has highlighted the importance of uncertainty in motivating social comparison. We extended this approach by focusing on the frequency of social comparisons and four uncertainty-related constructs, namely, self-concept clarity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression. Participants were 166 undergraduates who completed measures for each construct, as well as measures of their own frequency of general, upward, and downward social comparisons. Initial correlational analyses indicated that higher self-concept clarity was related to a lower frequency of general and upward social comparisons; whereas higher intolerance of uncertainty was related to a higher frequency of general, upward, and downward social comparisons. Depression and anxiety were also related to increased general and upward comparisons. Of particular interest, however, were the findings associated with two path analyses. The first analysis indicated that when all four uncertainty-related constructs were considered together, intolerance of uncertainty emerged as the most important predictor of general, upward, and downward comparisons. In contrast, lower self-concept clarity and increased depression played a much more limited role, and anxiety was not a significant predictor. In turn, the second analysis showed that self-concept clarity and intolerance of uncertainty fully mediated the relationships between depression, anxiety, and general and upward social comparison.