Research On The Antecedents Of Social Comparison And The Effect Of Social Comparison On Prosocial Behavior

Prior research demonstrated that social comparison is mostly understood as a process which is engaged to fulfill fundamental needs such as self-evaluation,selfenhancement,and self-improvement.When individuals have self-enhancement motivation will make a downward social comparison;whereas individuals that have self-improvement motivation,they will make an upward social comparison.However,the reasons why individuals engage in social comparisons are complex.The classic answer to why people compare themselves to others based on motivational considerations cannot fully explain the antecedents of social comparison.Based on grounded theory,this present research will further explore the antecedents of social comparison.The research will also investigate the situation in which individuals are more likely to make a social comparison.This research identifies four factors,namely enhancement motivation,altruistic motivation,growth motivation,and unconsciousness,that will promote individuals to make a downward social comparison.Research also finds four factors,respectively evaluation motivation,relatedness motivation,and growth motivation,that will promote individuals to make an upward social comparison.This research also shows that specific situations will activate individuals to make a social comparison.The research identifies four situations,enhancement situation,social situation,competition situation,and difference situation,in which individuals are more likely to engage to make a downward social comparison.The research also identifies four situations;social situation,emotional situation,and difference situation,in which individuals are more likely to engage to make an upward social comparison.Researchers find that research has paid little attention to the notion of how information from social comparison should be presented and whether the different formats of comparative information have an impact on relevant behaviors(e.g.,prosocial behavior).Thus,one purpose of this research is to investigate whether the format of comparative information(numerical vs.verbal)influences the perceived discrepancy in both downward and upward social comparison conditions and whether the resulting prosocial behavior can be enhanced or weakened.This paper also explores three boundary conditions:numeracy,self-concept clarity,and relevance.Across a field study and five laboratory studies,the research finds that numerical comparative information in comparison to verbal comparative information increases prosocial behavior when people make a downward social comparison while numerical comparative information decreases prosocial behavior compared with verbal comparative information when people make an upward social comparison.Perceived discrepancy plays a mediating role in the above effects.When individuals make a downward social comparison,perceived positive discrepancy plays the mediating role in the effect of comparative information on prosocial behavior;when individuals make an upward social comparison,perceived negative discrepancy plays the mediating role in the effect of comparative information on prosocial behavior.This research also demonstrates that when the individuals’ numeracy is high,compared with verbal information,numerical information will increase prosocial behavior after making a downward social comparison;numerical information will decrease prosocial behavior after making upward social comparison.However,when the individuals’ numeracy is low,compared with numerical information,verbal information will increase prosocial behavior after making a downward social comparison;verbal information will decrease prosocial behavior after making an upward social comparison.The research also finds that for the individuals with high self-concept clarity,the effect of the format of comparative information on prosocial behavior will be weakened.This research also shows that when the comparison target is low relevance,the effect of the format of comparative information on prosocial behavior will be attenuated.Social comparison can induce subtle emotions.Recent studies suggest that it is important to examine the impact of specific,discrete emotions rather than general positive or negative emotions.Thus,drawing from theories on self-construal and emotion,this research examines the interactive effect of the direction of social comparison(downward and upward comparison)and self-construal(personal-self and social-self)on prosocial behavior.The research also investigates the mediating effect of the reactive emotions(inspiration,envy,scorn,and sympathy).Using two laboratory studies,this research demonstrates that the personal-self individuals produce more emotion of scorn which,in turn,decreases their prosocial behavior after making downward comparison;the social-self individuals produce more emotion of sympathy which,in turn,increases their prosocial behavior after making a downward comparison.This research also finds that the personal-self individuals produce more emotion of envy which,in turn,decreases their prosocial behavior after making an upward comparison;the social-self individuals produce more emotion of inspiration which,in turn,increases their prosocial behavior after making an upward comparison.From the perspective of theory,this research makes a valuable contribution to the social comparison,prosocial behavior,comparative information,emotion,and selfconstrual domains.From the perspective of practical implications,findings from this research also have significant implications for marketers and offer guidelines to develop effective marketing plans.