1. Social Comparison Direction Upward social comparison- compare to someone who is better than you. Downward social comparison- compare to someone who is worse than you.

2. 2 Contrast Contrast effect – self is contrasted to the target of comparison and thus self- evaluations move away from the target.

3. 3 Contrast Effect Results Upward social comparison- compare to someone who is better than you. Downward social comparison- compare to someone who is worse than you. Feel worse Feel better

4. 4 Assimilation effects Assimilation effect- Self-evaluations move towards the target of comparison.

5. 5 Assimilation Effect Results Upward social comparison- compare to someone who is better than you. Downward social comparison- compare to someone who is worse than you. Feel better Feel worse

6. 6 Predicting Contrast vs. Assimilation Tesser’s Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model Results depend on: Psychological closeness Relevance of the dimension

7. 7 Self-Evaluation Maintenance Ratings of Positivity in Perception

8. 8 Predicting Assimilation vs. Contrast Lockwood & Kunda (1997) Results depend on: Relevance Attainability

9. 9 Lockwood & Kunda (1997)

10. 10 Automaticity Automatic processes are well learned and require little or no conscious attention. Is social comparison an automatic process? If so, people should be able to compare even under cognitive load.

11. 11 Gilbert et al. (1995) Schizophrenia detection task First watched confederate perform well (16/18) or poorly (4/18) But confederate was deliberately trained or misinformed, so the comparison is non-diagnostic. Half of the participants are under cognitive load. All participants took test and got 10/18

12. 12 Gilbert’s theory No Cognitive load: Compare to confederate Correction: Comparison is non-diagnostic No effect On self-evaluation Cognitive load: Compare to confederate Unable to correct Effect on Self-evaluation

13. 13 Gilbert et al. (1995) Results (self-evaluations of performance) Not busy: No significant effect of comparison direction. Busy: Significant contrast effect.