Social comparison as a double-edged sword on social media: The role of envy type and online social identity

Abstract

Several studies have explored the psychological consequences of social comparison in SNS usage. This paper aims to explore the behavioral outcomes of social comparison through the underlying mechanisms of benign and malicious envy on Facebook. The paper also examines the role of online social identity in predicting benign and malicious envy. Based on multi-wave data collected from 469 Facebook users in Pakistan, we found that Facebook user's social comparison provoked benign and malicious envy; benign envy, in turn, triggered self-improvement intention, and malicious envy triggered negative gossiping. Moreover, user's online social identity moderated the social comparison-envy relationship such that the positive relationship of social comparison and benign envy was stronger, and the positive relationship of social comparison and malicious envy was weaker when the user's online social identity was high. The study contributes to social media literature by examining the behavioral outcomes of social comparison on social media and discusses empirical implications for policymakers, advertisers, SNS providers, SNS designers, educators, and users.