Social comparison by dysphoric and nondysphoric college students: The grass isn't always greener on the other side

Abstract

We manipulated information about a comparison-other in order to resolve contrasting findings regarding social comparisons of dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals. In Study 1, subjects rated themselves and either an average college student, an average depressed college student, or an average nondepressed college student on depression-relevant, nondepression-relevant, and depression-irrelevant items. In Study 2, detailed information about one of five comparison-others ranging from very positive to very negative was presented to subjects. In both studies, dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects did not make pervasively unfavorable or favorable social comparisons; instead, social comparisons were a function of the similarity between self and other. That favorable, unfavorable, and evenhanded social comparisons could be observed for both dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects by manipulating the identity of the comparison-other suggests that mixed findings for previous social comparison research may be attributed to differences and ambiguities in the comparison-others used.