Abstract
The 'Lying Flat' mindset refers to people's low intention to self-improvement. We hypothesized that personal relative deprivation (PRD), the negative consequence of social comparisons, is one of the reasons that might harm individuals' self-improvement motivations. In study 1 (N= 313), we found that PRD negatively predicted self-improvement after controlling for various confounding variables. This result is confirmed in study 2a (N= 3399) and 2b (N= 3219) by using a national representative sample. Furthermore, Study 2a found that the effect of PRD on self-improvement was mediated by the system-justifying belief (SJB). In study 3 (N= 160), we experimentally demonstrated that PRD harms self-improvement and persistence via its effect on SJB. The higher PRD people experienced, the less they endorsed the SJB, which thereby reduced self-improvement. Taken together, this research manifested that not only would PRD affect people's social beliefs (e.g. SJB) but also hinder self-improvement motivations.
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