The Efficiency of Social Comparisons With Routine Standards

The cognitive miser's perspective: Social comparison as a heuristic in self-judgements

“…The facilitation of comparisons with routine standards based on procedural practice was experimentally confirmed (Corcoran & Mussweiler, 2009b). In one experiment (Study 2) participants repeatedly compared the self with a friend concerning several attributes (e.g., Who is more punctual/ lazy/assertive?…”

“…Most of the research focuses on the speed of the process (Corcoran & Mussweiler, 2009b;Corcoran et al, 2010;). In only one study did Mussweiler and Epstude (2009) use a secondary-task paradigm to demonstrate that cognitive thinking results not only in faster judgements but also saves cognitive resources.…”

A motivational framework of social comparison.

“…Leon Festinger’s (1954) theory of social comparison already provided the basis of the three main social comparison motives discussed in the literature: First, people engage in comparisons with others who are perceived as similar on an evaluated dimension out of the motivation to accurately assess their own abilities (self-evaluation; Festinger, 1954; Wheeler, 1966). This way, social comparison is a fast and efficient tool to gain evaluative self-knowledge regarding one’s own standing in the absence of an objective standard (Corcoran & Mussweiler, 2009; Mussweiler & Epstude, 2009; Taylor et al, 1996). Second, in order to improve one’s abilities (self-improvement), there is a motivation to compare to others who are already more successful (Taylor & Lobel, 1989).…”

That certain something! Focusing on similarities reduces judgmental uncertainty

“…Typically, information-rich and systematic standards are preferred as comparison bases to project information to the target, which contributes to its understanding (Bowdle & Gentner, 1997). For instance, when making a judgment about a vaguely known country, one typically does so in comparison to a routine-standard, for example one's home country, about which one has plenty of information readily available (Corcoran & Mussweiler, 2009;Mussweiler & Rüter, 2003). More precisely, when thinking about how many years are between federal elections, one may rely on easily accessible information about elections in one's home country.…”