Students' Preferences for Information About Their Test Performance: A Social Comparison Study1

Abstract

College students received their test scores and letter grades for an actual examination and were asked to indicate their degree of interest in obtaining information (average score, highest score, etc.) in order to evaluate their performance. Overall, the students were most interested in knowing the average test score and least interested in knowing the lowest test score and the number of others who received worse test scores. There was some evidence supporting Festinger's unidirectional drive hypothesis in that most of the students were moderately interested in knowing how many others obtained better scores. Surprisingly, students who failed the examination displayed the greatest interest in the available information. There was little evidence suggesting defensive comparison on the part of low scorers. The results have implications for the self evaluation of ability, for social comparison research, and for educational practice.