Is Being Worse than You Worse for Us? The Effect of Social Comparisons to Friends

Friendship is an important source of well-being, but remarkably little research has investigated the processes that can undermine these connections. One such process is the tendency to compare oneself to others, especially to close others. Across three studies, I examined how the frequency and direction of social comparisons influence the evaluations of the self and of a new friend. In Studies 1 and 2, frequent upward comparisons were positively associated with global markers of closeness. In Study 2, I found that individuals reported lower self-evaluations after an upward comparison, and that this comparison negatively impacted immediate evaluations of their friendship. In Study 3, the valence (positive or neutral) of a message from a friend had no effect on one’s self- or friendship evaluations. These studies may suggest that social comparisons do have an impact not only on how one thinks about the self, but also on how friendships are perceived.M.A