Self-Evaluation in Competition Pools

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of theory and research on competition pools, namely, salient groups in which social comparisons occur routinely and exert a significant impact on self-evaluations. The authors conceptualize competition pools broadly to include competitions among friends, family, coworkers, teammates, and classmates. After a brief overview of social comparison theory, the authors describe the impact of social comparisons that arise in competition pools. Further, the authors note that effects of social comparisons often occur alongside effects of intrapersonal or temporal comparisons. Next, the authors discuss research on how people evaluate referents who outperform them in competition pools. This research, including work on the genius effect and referent status neglect, suggests that people selectively consider the skill level of the referent in order to maintain a positive self-image. The authors then turn to the distinction between local versus global competition pools. Informed by research on the big-fish-little-pond effect and local dominance, the authors argue that social comparisons are most impactful when made locally, among a few immediate others, as opposed to globally, with larger groups. Finally, the chapter concludes by highlighting broader implications of research on competition pools for social comparison theory as well as directions for future research.