The Effect Of Social Comparison With Peers On Trust Of Seventh Graders

Adult study showed there was effect of social comparison on trust. To adolescents, they are in the important time of developing peer relationship, peer become more and more important in their life. Social comparison with peers is very common in middle schools. In addition, peer trust is a special type of trust in this period and plays a very important role in peer relationship. So, dose social comparison with peers have an effect on peer trust? The current study including two studies investigated the effects of social comparison with peers, who are in different levels of intimacy, on trust of seventh graders.Study one investigated the effects of social comparison on peer trust, cognitive and affective trust and the mediation effects of cognitive and affective trust in the relationship between social comparison and peer trust, when comparison targets were non-friend classmate or friend. Subjects were 337 freshmen of one middle school, before study, investigators arranged one same-sex comparison target for each subject based on exam scores ranking. During the study, subjects evaluated their relations with comparison target(non-friend classmate or friend), then compared their rankings with targets’ and evaluated their peer trust, cognitive and affective trust to targets. The results showed: to non-friend classmates, compared downward comparison, upward comparison had higher peer trust, cognitive and affective trust. Cognitive trust and affective trust, respectively, played a fully mediation effect in the relationship between social comparison and peer trust; to friends, social comparison had no effect on three kinds of trusts.The study two based on study one, divided friends into general friends and close friend, investigated that social comparison’s effects on peer trust, cognitive and affective trust, and whether or not the three kinds of trusts played mediation effects in the relationship between social comparison and intimacy change in friendship. 522 freshmen of two middle schools nominated one most intimate friend at the beginning of term. After midterm examination, they compared their own class rankings with their nominated friends’. Then subjects evaluated their peer trust, cognitive and affective trust to their nominated friends. Finally, subjects reevaluated the intimacy of their nominated friends. The results showed: to close friends, namely whose intimacy did not change, compared to downward comparison, upward comparison had lower affective trust. Social comparison had no effect on cognitive trust and peer trust; to general friends, namely whose intimacy changed, compared to upward comparison, downward comparison had lower affective trust and cognitive trust, social comparison had no effect on peer trust; cognitive trust played a fully mediation effect in the relationship between social comparison and intimacy change in friendship, namely compared to downward comparison, upward comparison had an indirect positive effect on friendship intimacy through cognitive trust only.