Social validation and interpersonal evaluations

Abstract

In three-person groups subjects took turns evaluating one anothers' responses on a social-sensitivity inventory. They received controlled feedback, with one peer generally agreeing with them (Positive Evaluator) and the other disagreeing (Negative Evaluator). Half of the subjects were told that the inventory was an objective test of skill with right and wrong answers and that their responses would be scored (Low Social-Validation condition), and half that it was a subjective task with no correct or incorrect responses (High Social-Validation condition). Subjects evaluated the Positive Evaluator more favorably than the Negative Evaluator and, as predicted from extensions of social-comparison theory, there was greater differential attraction toward the Positive Evaluator in the High Social-Validation condition. Individual differences in need for approval also affected differential evaluations of the Positive and Negative Evaluators.