Festinger’s social comparison theory.

A theory that tells us about how our self-concept is affected by comparisons.

Have you ever heard the expression "comparisons are hateful? The reality is that there are many people who tend to constantly compare themselves with others. But something similar has already been said by Leon Festinger, a social psychologist Leon Festinger, a social psychologist, in his theory of social comparison. (1954).

In this article we will learn what this theory consists of, and how we compare ourselves with others to evaluate our own opinions, abilities and skills.

Social comparison theory: characteristics

The theory of social comparison (1954) was initially proposed by social psychologist Leon Festinger, and states that people evaluate our own opinions, abilities and skills by comparing them with those of others.. It also appears that this is especially true in situations of uncertainty, where it may be difficult to measure one's ability objectively.

Thus, this theory is based on the belief that there is a drive within individuals that motivates them to obtain rigorous self-evaluations.

In addition, the social comparison theory attempts to explain how social factors influence how social factors influence self-concept..

• You may be interested in, "Self-concept: what is it and how is it formed?"

Similarity hypothesis

One of the most relevant hypotheses proposed by the theory of social comparison is the similarity hypothesis, according to which we prefer to compare ourselves with people who are similar to us.The similarity hypothesis is a hypothesis that we prefer to compare ourselves with people who are similar to us, but it specifies three points:

1. In capacities

It establishes that we use an upward unidirectional impulse to compare ourselves with others; that is, when we evaluate our capabilities, we compare ourselves with better people, by the desire to improve.

2. In opinions

When it comes to evaluating our own opinions, we tend to compare ourselves with those who think differently; if, in spite of this, they agree with our position, we feel a sense of self-affirmation with respect to our opinion. a feeling of self-affirmation with respect to our opinion.. On the other hand, we experience hostility if we do not agree.

3. In anxiogenic situations

In situations that make us anxious, we tend to compare ourselves with people who are in the same situation as we are, as this makes us feel better understood and allows these people to empathize with us. makes us feel better understood and allows these people to empathize with us..

For example, in an exam situation, we will surely compare ourselves with our peers who also have to take the same exam, as that will make us feel more understood, than if for example we talk to our parents about a situation that generates anxiety for them.

Need for self-evaluation

For the elaboration of the theory of social comparison, L. Festinger took as a starting point the idea that people have a self-evaluative drive, i.e., they need to constantlythat is, they constantly need to evaluate their opinions and abilities.

Often, opinions and abilities cannot be evaluated through empirical observations. Moreover, they are good or bad (or right/wrong) depending on who we compare ourselves to, i.e., how they match or resemble each other, according to the concordance or similarity that occurs and the comparison criteria we use. we use.

Social comparison theory also explains why we think differently about ourselves depending on the nature of the comparison we make, and its meaning to us.

Premises

Social comparison theory starts from two premises for its elaboration:

On the one hand, the fact that evaluations of subjective opinions or abilities are stable.The second premise states that a person can be compared with others, whose opinions or capabilities are judged to be similar to one's own.

On the other hand, the second premise states that a person will be less attracted to situations in which others are very different from him or her. will be less attracted to situations in which others are very different from him/her than to those in which others are very different from him/her, than to those in which others are very different from him/her.The second premise states that a person will be less attracted to situations where others are very different from him/her than to those where others are similar to him/her, both in abilities and opinions.

Implications for everyday life

The theory of social comparison also has implications for the impact of the media and in the idea that people have of ourselves.

Thus, phrases such as "comparisons are hateful" could partly explain some of the ideas of the theory, since if we compare ourselves with people better than us, we are more likely to feel worse than if we compare ourselves with people worse than us.

The latter situation can increase our self-esteem, although in reality it does so in an artificial way, since a real improvement in self-esteem involves deeper changes and does not require comparing ourselves and does not require comparing oneself with anyone.

Reflection

Extrapolating the aforementioned phrase to other examples, we can think about the influence of the model prototype, which is based on an extremely thin woman; this can lead to significant problems for the self-esteem of certain women, who even go as far as to eating disorders such as anorexia. such as anorexia.

Similarly, the fact that the prototypical male models are strong, hyper-muscled men can also affect the self-esteem of men who do not look the same and are constantly comparing themselves.

As already mentioned, we insist that self-esteem must be based more on a comparison with oneself than with others, in order to be truly positive and satisfactory. In this sense, the objective in order to achieve a good degree of personal well-being is not to try to compare oneself with anyone, but to try to value the positive things about oneself.

Another Festinger's theory

L. Festinger's second theory, which is also fundamental in social psychology, is the theory of cognitive dissonance.. This theory states that a sense of dissonance is generated in us when our beliefs conflict with what we do.

The internal state of tension that is generated motivates us to eliminate such dissonance and to actively avoid situations and information that may increase it.

This theory can be related to social comparison theory in terms of ideas that clash with our self-concept and give us back a more negative image of ourselves.