The Effect Of Intergroup Comparison Direction On Regulatory Focus Of Group Members

Intergroup comparison is a type of social comparison, in which individual group members compare themselves to someone from another group, or compare their whole ingroup to an outgroup. Intergroup comparison is a kind of common social phenomenon, and it differs in its direction. Indeed, the relative difference between ingroup and outgroup determines the direction of intergroup comparison—specifically, whether one’s ingroup is compared to a better-off or worse-off outgroup (termed upward and downward intergroup comparison). Though different kinds of psychology responses can be caused by intergroup comparison, the current research focus on the induced temporary regulatory focus. Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between two foci of self-regulatory:a promotion focus and prevention focus. Self-regulation through a prevention focus is rooted in security needs, one’s responsibilities and’oughts’, whereas self-regulation through a promotion focus relates to nurturance needs, aspirations, and ’ideals’. Previous research found that, on the status-defined dimension, upward intergroup comparison lead to higher blood pressure, vigilant strategies and heightened accuracy in tasks. Whereas member engaged in downward comparison showed lower blood pressure, eager strategies and heightened speed in the same task. All these results illustrated that, upward intergroup comparison activated group members’prevention focus, while downward one led to promotion focus. However, things changed as intergroup comparison took place on new, unrelated dimensions. For example, when evaluating a possible change of the status quo, members of high status groups showed a physiological threat response, tried to achieve their maintenance goals, and adopted a vigilant strategy, while members of a low status group showed a physiological challenge response, tried to achieve their improvement goals, and adopted an eager strategy.Therefore, we presumed that, intergroup comparison on a new dimension can also activate members’regulatory focus. More specifically, upward intergroup comparison induce a promotion focus, whereas downward intergroup comparison induce a prevention focus. Two experiments were conducted to test our hypothesis.Experiment1examined the the regulatory focus strategy during the intergroup comparison. A2(comparison direction:upward vs. downward) x2(strategic framing:eager-gain vs. vigilant-not lose between-subjects design was used. To manipulate direction of intergroup comparison we ostensibly varied the school attended by each participant’s comparison group. Higher ranked schools were selected as participants’upward comparison groups, and lower ranked schools as the downward. Additionally, we used the theoretical framework of regulatory fit to test for the regulatory focus following intergroup comparison. Participants were made to choose one of two gifts either by eager-gain strategy or by vigilant-not lose strategy and then assign a monetary price to what they choose. The results revealed an significant two-way interaction between comparison direction and strategic framing. Specifically, in upward comparison condition, participants using eager-gain strategy assigned higher price to the gift than participants using vigilant-not lose strategy. While in downward comparison condition, there were no differences between those who adopted eager-gain strategy and vigilant-not lose strategy.Experiment2examined the the regulatory focus emotion during the intergroup comparison. A2(comparison direction:upward vs. downward)×2(comparison outcome:success vs. failure) between-subjects design was used. The manipulation of comparison direction was the same as experiment1. Experiment2used false performance feedback to manipulate comparison outcome, and measured feedback-induced emotional change (cheerfulness-dejection-related vs. quiescence-agitation-related). As predicted, we found an significant interaction between comparison direction and type of feedback-induced emotional change. Simple effect tests revealed that for participants in upward comparison condition, there was more feedback-consistent emotional change for the cheerfulness-dejection dimension than for the quiescence-agitation dimension. While for those in downward comparison condition, there was no difference between feedback-consistent emotional change for the cheerfulness-dejection dimension and that for the quiescence-agitation dimension.Through the above experiments, the following conclusion was reached:Intergroup comparison in different direction induce regulatory foci. Specifically, upward intergroup comparison induced a promotion focus, but downward intergroup comparison had no effect on group members’regulatory focus. Our study proved that group-based self-regulation indeed exists and group situation can influence an individual’s regulatory focus.