Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The theory of social comparison, developed by Leon Festinger in 1954, is a set of hypotheses, corollaries, and deviations concerned with why, with whom, and to what effect people compare themselves with other people. Festinger (1954b) assumed a motive to know that one's opinions are correct and to know what one is and is not capable of doing. This leads to “derivations” about the conditions under which social comparison processes arise and about its nature. For example, a process of social comparison arises when a person cannot directly evaluate his or her opinions or abilities by objective non‐social evidence. When that occurs, individuals use other persons as points of comparison, preferably others who are similar to themselves. One ceases comparison with another person when that person becomes very divergent from one's self. There have been many recent developments; for example, a focus on the process of downward comparison, that is, comparison with a person who is less well off, rather than the upward comparison (comparison with a person who is better off). Festinger (1954a) believed that under certain conditions one would compare oneself with persons of slightly better ability. Indeed, there has been a recent explosion of interest which is impossible to succinctly summarize. As Buunk and Mussweiler (2001: 472) note, the theory has moved “from a specific, well defined ... log in or subscribe to read full text