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Among the Better Ones

Upward Assimilation in Social Comparison

  • Chapter
Handbook of Social Comparison

Part of the book series: The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology ((SSSC))

Abstract

Since the first empirical tests of Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory, theorists have been concerned with the “direction” of comparisons: whether people compare with persons superior or inferior to themselves and under what conditions (Wheeler, 1991). This focus on comparison direction was maintained by theorists exploring how exposure to superior versus inferior others influences well-being (Wills, 1981). Comparison direction was considered important to study because it supposedly indicated whether one was looking for (or responding to) favorable or unfavorable information about the self. With the exception of two early studies (Wheeler, 1966; Thornton & Arrowood, 1966), the literature made two assumptions: (1) that the evaluative implications of comparison are intrinsic to its direction, and (2) that the comparison process involves contrasting one’s abilities or attributes with those of others. Accordingly, it was thought that upward comparison is used to learn how much one falls short of one’s superiors and lowers self-evaluations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, 90407, USA

    Rebecca L. Collins

Authors
  1. Rebecca L. Collins
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Jerry Suls

  2. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Ladd Wheeler

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Collins, R.L. (2000). Among the Better Ones. In: Suls, J., Wheeler, L. (eds) Handbook of Social Comparison. The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6903-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4237-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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