Social comparison theory, initially proposed by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954, centers on the belief that individuals drive to gain accurate self-evaluations. The theory explains how individuals evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing themselves to others to reduce uncertainty in these domains and learn how to define the self. Comparing oneself to others socially is a form of measurement and self-assessment to identify where an individual stands according their own set of standards and emotions about themselves. Following the initial theory, research began to focus on social comparison as a way of self-enhancement, introducing the concepts of downward and upward comparisons and expanding the motivations of social comparisons. Social comparison can be traced back to the pivotal paper by Herbert Hyman, back in 1942. Hyman revealed the assessment of one's own status is dependent on the group with whom one compares oneself. The social comparison theory is the belief that media influence, social status, and other forms of competitiveness can affect our self-esteem and mood. This can affect individuals' outlook on themselves and how they fit in with others.
History Leon Festinger was an American psychologist who developed the concept of social comparison theory. Festinger put forward many hypotheses about social comparison theory. First, he explained that humans always examine their own views and capabilities in comparison with other people and have the urge to evaluate themselves accordingly. In addition, he argued that these comparisons tend to decrease as the difference between oneself and the other individual with whom one compares oneself begins to increase. He also thought that people have a desire to achieve greater abilities, but there are social constraints that make it difficult to achieve this, and this is often not sufficiently reflected in society's views. He continued with the idea that ending comparisons between oneself and others would lead to hostility and disdain of ideas. Their hypothesis also stated that making a change in the importance of a comparison group would increase the pressure to conform to that group. However, he added that if the person, image, or comparison group is very different from the evaluator, the tendency to narrow the range of comparability will become stronger (Festinger, 1954). Lastly, he hypothesized that the comparers' tendencies would be influenced by their distance from the comparison group's mode, with those who are closer to the mode having higher tendencies to change and those who are farther away having less (Festinger, 1954).
Initial framework In the theory, Festinger provided nine main hypotheses:
First, he stated that humans have a basic drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities and that people evaluate themselves through objective, nonsocial means (Hypothesis I). Second, Festinger stated that if objective, nonsocial means were not available, people would evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparison to other people (Hypothesis II). Next, he hypothesized that the tendency to compare oneself to another person decreases as the difference between their opinions and abilities becomes more divergent. In other words, if someone is much different from you, you are less likely to compare yourself to that person (Hypothesis III). He next hypothesized that there is a unidirectional drive upward in the case of abilities, which is largely absent in opinions. This drive refers to the value that is placed on doing better and better. (Hypothesis IV). Next, Festinger hypothesizes that nonsocial restraints make it difficult or even impossible to change one's ability. These restraints are mainly absent for opinions. People can change their thoughts when they want to. Still, no matter how motivated individuals may be to improve their ability, other elements may make this impossible (Hypothesis V). Festinger hypothesizes that the cessation of comparison with others is accompanied by hostility or derogation to the extent that continued comparison with those persons implies unpleasant consequences (Hypothesis VI) Next, any factors that increase the importance of some particular group as a comparison group from some specific opinion or ability will increase the pressure toward uniformity concerning that ability or opinion within that group. Suppose discrepancies arise between the evaluator and the comparison group. In that case, there is a tendency to reduce the divergence by either attempting to persuade others or changing their personal views to attain uniformity. However, the importance, relevance, and attraction to a comparison group that affects the original motivation for comparison mediate the pressures towards uniformity (Hypothesis VII). His following hypothesis states that if persons divergent from one's own opinion or ability are perceived as different from oneself on attributes consistent with the divergence, the tendency to narrow the range of comparability becomes stronger (Hypothesis VIII). Lastly, Festinger hypothesized that when there is a range of opinions or abilities in a group, the relative strength of the three manifestations of pressures toward uniformity will be different for those who are close to the group's mode than those who are distant from the mode. Those close to the mode will have stronger tendencies to change the positions of others, weaker tendencies to narrow the range of comparison, and even weaker tendencies to change their own opinions (Hypothesis IX).
Theoretical advances Since its inception, the initial framework has undergone several advances. Key among these are developments in understanding the motivations that underlie social comparisons and the particular types of social comparisons that are made. Motives that are relevant to social comparison include self-enhancement, maintenance of a positive self-evaluation, components of attributions and validation, and the avoidance of closure. While there have been changes in Festinger's original concept, many fundamental aspects remain, including the prevalence of the tendency towards social comparison and the general process that is social comparison.
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