Tendencies for Comparing Up and Down: An Examination of the Directional Subscales of the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure

Abstract

People vary in their individual tendencies to compare to others—referred to as social comparison orientation (SCO). Researchers have heretofore developed and validated a scale to assess SCO—the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM). The standard INCOM assesses non-directional comparisons, but not directional comparisons to better- and worse-off others. The goal of the present research was to examine the factor structure and validity of directional (and non-directional) comparison tendencies using the expanded INCOM. Across four archival studies and one pre-registered study using student and non-student samples, we provide evidence for 1) a 3-factor structure for the INCOM with non-directional, directional-upward, and directional-downward SCO dimensions, 2) inter-correlations among the SCO dimensions suggesting convergent validity of the directional scales, 3) greater endorsement of non-directional, then directional-upward, and directional-downward SCO, 4) lower SCO among older individuals and members of racial/ethnic minority groups, and 5) strong and consistent associations of directional-upward SCO with well-being and affect, appearance beliefs (e.g., body satisfaction), social emotions (e.g., envy), and agency-related motivations and consequences in interpersonal contexts, but smaller and less consistent associations of non-directional and directional-downward SCO with outcomes (with notable exceptions). Taken together, this research indicates that SCO is a multi-faceted individual difference variable.