The Effects of Different Types of Self–Activation on Social Comparison Orientation

Schwinghammer, Saskia A.; Stapel, Diederik A.

doi:10.1521/soco.2006.24.6.703

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Following Jaccard (1998; see also Schwinghammer & Stapel, 2006), we tested our hypotheses in two steps. We first performed a 2 (power) × 2 (legitimacy) analysis of variance (ANOVA; without the baseline condition) to determine the effects of power and legitimacy.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power Increases Social Distance

Lammers

Galinsky

Gordijn

et al. 2011

Social Psychological and Personality Science

203

140

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Five experiments investigated the effect of power on social distance. Although increased social distance has been suggested to be an underlying mechanism for a number of the effects of power, there is little empirical evidence directly supporting this claim. Our first three experiments found that power increases social distance toward others. In addition, these studies demonstrated that this effect is (a) mediated by self-sufficiency and (b) moderated by the perceived legitimacy of power-only when power is seen as legitimate, does it increase social distance. The final two studies build off research showing that social distance is linked to decreased altruism and find an interaction between power and legitimacy on willingness to help others. The authors propose that the concept of social distance offers a synthesizing lens that integrates seemingly disparate findings in the power literature and explains how power can both corrupt and elevate.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power Increases Social Distance

Lammers

Galinsky

Gordijn

et al. 2011

Social Psychological and Personality Science

203

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In order to induce self-activation, participants were given an essay-assignment (Schwinghammer & Stapel, 2006), which was presented as an application letter for a future employer. Participants were told that their application letter should enable their future employer to get an accurate impression of who they are and what they are capable of.…”

Section: Manipulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling body dissatisfied after viewing thin-ideal pictures is mediated by self-activation

et al. 2010

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The present study sought to investigate the influence of self-activation on body and weight satisfaction in restrained and unrestrained eaters, after exposure to thin-ideal images. Restrained eaters (n=39) and unrestrained eaters (n=40) were randomly assigned to a self-activation manipulation versus a control manipulation. After the manipulation, all participants were exposed to eight thin-ideal images. Measures of state body and weight satisfaction and of social comparison tendencies were assessed throughout the experiment. Self-activated restrained eaters showed a significant decrease in body and weight satisfaction after exposure to thin-ideal images, compared to restrained eaters who were not self-activated. In unrestrained eaters, the self-activation manipulation did not have any effect on body or weight dissatisfaction. In conclusion, exposure to fashion models only had a negative influence on women's self-evaluations when two conditions were met: (1) the participant was 'self-activated' and (2) the participant classified as a restrained eater.

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“…Marked biological and psychological changes, distinct peer influence, high levels of internalisation of social norms, consciousness about appearance and selfdirected negative affectivity, make adolescence one of the most vulnerable periods in life (Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004;Bos, Muris, Mulkens, & Schaalma, 2006) and the most relevant period to be investigated considering social comparison and self-esteem. Insecure adolescents, dealing with self-directed negative affectivity, most likely turn to social comparison in order to obtain more relevant information, which in the case of upward comparison further discourages them and, in turn, leads to additional dissatisfaction and lowering of self-esteem (Schwinghammer & Stapel, 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of forced social comparison on adolescents’ self-esteem and appearance satisfaction

et al. 2011

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The impact of forced social comparison on adolescents? self-esteem and appearance satisfaction research, conducted on a sample of 133 high school seniors, consisted of two phases. In phase one, participants were given the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, Appearance Satisfaction Scale and Appearance Relevance Scale, and in phase two, one month later, they were exposed to photographs of attractive and unattractive individuals. Two groups of boys and girls each assessed attractive or unattractive individuals of their own gender, while two control groups (of both genders) were not exposed to any photographs. Immediately after assessing the photographs, the participants were again given the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory and Appearance Satisfaction Scale. We found that forced social comparison had an impact on self-esteem and a marginally significant effect on appearance satisfaction in the group of participants (of both genders) assessing the photographs of unattractive individuals, while no effects were found in the either the control group or the group assessing the photographs of attractive individuals. We also examined the impact of self-esteem, appearance satisfaction and appearance relevance as moderating variables on the effect size of social comparison and showed that higher pretest self-esteem and appearance relevance and lower appearance satisfaction predict higher posttest self-esteem scores, regardless of the participants? group membership. The group of participants exposed to photographs of unattractive people, however, showed the opposite pattern - those participants who had initially lower self-esteem have increased it more as a result of the experimental exposure.

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The Effects of Different Types of Self–Activation on Social Comparison Orientation

Cited by 6 publications

References 26 publications

Power Increases Social Distance

Power Increases Social Distance

Feeling body dissatisfied after viewing thin-ideal pictures is mediated by self-activation

The impact of forced social comparison on adolescents’ self-esteem and appearance satisfaction

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