Social Comparison Processes in Envy and Jealousy

Abstract

Although social comparison theory has inspired social psychological research for nearly four decades, until recently very little explicit attention has been paid to the emotional consequences of social comparison processes (but see Tesser, chapter 5, this volume). This neglect of the emotional consequences of comparison finds its roots in Festinger’s (1954) predominant concern with the selection of comparison objects and the informative value of comparison feedback rather than its more affective repercussions. In the past, a fairly undifferentiated pleasant or unpleasant affect has been thought to accompany positive or negative comparisons (e.g., Brickman & Bulman’s, 1977, “pleasure and pain” of social comparison), but the precise quality of these reactions has not been of primary concern. The only affective consequence of social comparison that has been focused upon systematically by investigators is change in self-evaluation, but not the specific emotions that accompany such appraisals.

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