Responses to Upward and Downward Social Comparisons: The Impact of Esteem-Relevance and Perceived Control

A number of theories of human behavior share the assumption that we learn about and evaluate ourselves, our potentials, and our circumstances in life in part by social comparisons, that is, through comparing our abilities, opinions, emotions, and outcomes with those of others. Theory and research focussed on social comparison processes (Festinger, 1954; Suls & Miller, 1977) has, for the most part, addressed the question of which others people select for comparison purposes. This emphasis on choice of comparison other is reflected in early research investigating when people choose to compare themselves with similar versus dissimilar others (e.g., Wheeler et al., 1969; Zanna, Goethals & Hill, 1975), and contemporary research on downward social comparisons (Wills, 1981; 1987), and choice of comparisons among people coping with victimization (e.g., Wood, Taylor & Lichtman, 1985).