Social Comparison Mechanisms Research Articles

Relational effects of relative performance information: The role of professional identity

Prior accounting studies on relative performance information (RPI) have mainly considered the effects of RPI on employees’ performance. This study extends this stream of research by investigating relational effects of RPI that capture RPI recipients’ attitudes towards RPI provision. Specifically, we examine the conditions under which RPI has a positive influence on perceived organizational support (POS). This is important because research on organizational behaviour has demonstrated that POS is an antecedent of desirable job-related attitudes such as organizational commitment, job involvement, and extra-role performance. The results of a dyadic survey in a hospital setting suggest that the effect of RPI on POS is conditional not only on the perceived usefulness of information and relative performance but also on the professional identification of RPI recipients. Our findings indicate that RPI provision is especially suitable for employees who possess a stronger social identification with their peer groups. Our study adds a relational perspective to the hitherto mostly informational and motivational focus in studying social comparison mechanisms linked to RPI systems.

In good company: The influence of peers on industry engagement by academic scientists

Previous research on academic entrepreneurship and engagement with industry has found that the behaviour of academics is influenced by their local social context. However, we know little about the mechanisms that produce this effect. We argue that academic scientists’ industry engagement is influenced significantly by the behaviour of their peers, that is, the behaviour of colleagues of similar seniority. Using insights from social psychology, we hypothesize that these peer effects are produced by the mechanism of social comparison. In an analysis of data from multiple sources for 1370 UK academic scientists and engineers, we find that peer effects are stronger for early career individuals and weaker for star scientists, suggesting the incidence of social comparison. We argue that individuals look to their immediate peers for inspiration, because they view them as an important reference group and use them as a benchmark for their own ambitions and behaviours. Our findings have important implications for how universities may encourage scientists’ behaviours by paying attention to local work contexts.

Neural Evidence for Individual and Cultural Variability in the Social Comparison Effect

Although several studies have investigated the neural mechanism of social comparison, it remains unclear whether and how cultural membership, particularly independent versus interdependent cultures, may differentially shape the neural processes underlying social comparison. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the behaviors and neural response patterns of Korean (i.e., interdependent culture) and American (i.e., independent culture) participants while performing a financial gambling task simultaneously and independently with a partner. Upon seeing the partner's income, greater modulation of the activity in the ventral striatum (VS) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) by relative gain was observed in Korean than American participants, suggesting greater sensitivity of Koreans toward social comparison. The strength of functional connectivity between the VS and the vmPFC predicted individual variability in the degree to which participants' decisions were affected by relative incomes. Additional model-based fMRI analysis further confirmed the primary role of the vmPFC in biasing decisions based on relative incomes. In summary, the present study provides the first neural evidence for decision biases due to social comparison and their individual and cultural variations.

Relation between perceived scholastic competence and social comparison mechanisms among elementary school children

According to the literature, among social comparison mechanisms, identification with an upward target would be the most frequent mechanism that students report to use. However, it remains unclear how the identification and the contrast mechanisms contribute to the construction of pupils’ scholastic perceived competence. The aim of this study was to test the two following hypotheses: (1) the more pupils report using downward identification and upward contrast, the lower their perceived scholastic competence; (2) the more pupils report using upward identification and downward contrast, the higher their perceived scholastic competence will be. Three hundred and eighty French-speaking pupils (147 fourth graders and 233 fifth graders) from public elementary schools in the district of Grenoble (France) were met in their school. Pupils responded to a standardized mental ability test and to a questionnaire about their perceived scholastic competence and their utilization of social comparison mechanisms: upward and downward identification and upward and downward contrast. Boys and girls differed on some of the social comparison mechanisms. However, the two hypotheses were confirmed and hold true for both boys and girls. Findings show that beyond the contribution of cognitive abilities, pupils’ responsiveness to these mechanisms contributed to the development of their perceived scholastic competence. One educational implication is the usefulness of analyzing the processes of social comparison as strategies to allow pupils to maintain a positive perception of their scholastic competence.

In Good Company: The Influence of Peers on Industry Engagement by Academic Scientists

Previous research on academic entrepreneurship and engagement with industry has found that the behaviour of academics is influenced by their local social context. However, we know little about the mechanisms that produce this effect. We argue that academic scientists’ industry engagement is influenced significantly by the behaviour of their peers, that is, the behaviour of colleagues of similar seniority. Using insights from social psychology, we hypothesize that these peer effects are produced by the mechanism of social comparison. In an analysis of data from multiple sources for 1,370 UK academic scientists and engineers, we find that peer effects are stronger for early career individuals and weaker for star scientists, suggesting the incidence of social comparison. We argue that individuals look to their immediate peers for inspiration, because they view them as an important reference group and use them as a benchmark for their own ambitions and behaviours. Our findings have important implications for how universities may encourage scientists’ behaviours by paying attention to local work contexts.

A Strategic Deviance Perspective on the Franchise Form of Organizing

Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, we propose that franchisors cannot assess and control opportunism absent comparative information provided by owning and operating some of their outlets and by franchising others. Moving beyond dyadic perspectives, we propose that the concept of strategic deviance suggests why franchisors accept deviant behavior resulting from vertical and horizontal agency problems in multiagent contracts. A plural form provides efficiency and quality benchmark information that curbs even greater levels of shirking and free–riding behaviors and enhances system performance. Opportunistic behaviors by company managers and franchisees are addressed through self–enforced social control and social comparison mechanisms.

Recursos psicológicos e ajustamento pessoal frente à incapacidade funcional na velhice<A NAME="n1"></A>

Diante do aumento da prevalência de condições crônicas na população idosa, crescente atenção é dada à identificação dos fatores psicológicos e sociais que podem afetar o bem-estar e a qualidade de vida de indivíduos mais velhos com incapacidades. Os recursos psicológicos e sociais de que o indivíduo dispõe são um caminho na determinação das implicações da incapacidade funcional na vida das pessoas afetadas. Esta revisão tem como objetivo apresentar algumas maneiras pelas quais os indivíduos enfrentam suas perdas em funções físicas e papéis sociais e a extensão em que os recursos psicológicos e sociais operam sobre os efeitos negativos das condições crônicas na qualidade de vida dos idosos. Entre as variáveis explanatórias apresentadas estão o suporte social, as crenças e estados emocionais positivos, a regulação afetiva, o mecanismo de comparação social, o senso de auto-eficácia percebida, o mecanismo de seleção-otimização-compensação e mecanismos de coping.

For better or for worse? a nationwide study of the social psychological effects of gender and ability grouping in mathematics

This exploratory investigation employs the National Education Longitudinal Surveybreak(NELS:88) to examine equity in tracking from a new, less-studied angle, with the view that tracking may not be all good or all bad, but that its effects are variable. The present study considers how these variable effects might, in part, be produced through a mechanism of social comparison conceptualized by Marsh et al. as the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). It compares similar students, except that some are in schools that use tracking and some are in schools that do not use tracking. Unlike previous studies of between-track effects, it asks whether tracking works uniformly for males and females within the same track placement in a particular subject area. Analyses yielded significant differences in students' attitudes toward mathematics, educational aspirations, self-esteem, locus of control, and engagement in school. These systematic effects suggest the mechanisms of the BFLPE. Despite the ‘reflected glory’ of being in a high ability track, when males, in contrast to females, are grouped with peers of similar high ability in a subject area that defines their competence, they seem to lose their competitive edge. Low ability males are positively affected through the mechanism of comparing with their peers because the competition to do well is relatively less keen than in high tracks.