The Consequences of Downward Social Comparisons on Social Media Following Workplace Ostracism

Abstract

Social comparison has become a ubiquitous phenomenon as social media platforms boomed in the past decades. Individuals can easily engage in social comparisons with the information on these platforms, which brings about the potential harm - anxiety and depression resulting from comparing with better-off others. Although such upward social comparisons and their negative consequences have attracted substantial attention from the public and academia, we expect that social media platforms also serve as an arena for downward social comparisons, through which individuals strive to improve their well-being. Drawing from social comparison theory, we endeavored to illustrate that downward social comparisons on social media “may be” an effective non-work approach for ostracized employees to cope with threats at work and improve well-being. Results from a four-wave field study revealed that workplace ostracism was positively associated with downward social comparisons on social media (i.e., Facebook), which in turn elicited feelings of compassion and schadenfreude. Compassion was associated with a decrease in depletion, whereas schadenfreude was associated with an increase in depletion. In addition, the effects of compassion and schadenfreude on depletion were stronger for women than men. In the supplemental analysis, we also demonstrated that depletion was positively associated with ostracism, providing support for a vicious cycle of workplace ostracism.