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Reduction in Self-Esteem and Self-Evaluation Following Upward Social Comparison on Facebook: Depression as a Moderator
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ólafsdóttir, Helga Margrét |
| Copyright Year | 2015 |
| Abstract | Facebook, which is a context for a desirable self-presentation and identity management, is an ideal platform for upward social comparison. However, limited research has examined potential negative effects of exposure to upward social comparison on social networking sites. The aims of the current study were to examine the potential negative effects of upward social comparison on self-esteem and self-evaluation and to explore if these negative effects were more pronounced among individuals with depressed affect. Fifty-eight undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to either an upward or an downward comparison group, where the comparison manipulation was made with different amount of likes and comments on the fictitious Facebook profiles that participants ́ temporarily viewed. Counter to hypotheses, following exposure to the Facebook profiles, there were no differences between the groups in state self-esteem and self-evaluation and temporal selfesteem decreased in both the downward and the upward social comparison condition. Confirming the moderation effect of depression, there was an interaction between social comparison and depressed affect for social self-esteem and self-evaluation. The findings suggest that depressed individuals are more vulnerable to upward social comparison on social networking sites than nondepressed individuals. Útdráttur Facebook er tilvalinn vettvangur fyrir félagslegan samanburð við einstaklinga sem eru betur settir vegna þess hversu auðvelt það er fyrir notendur að draga upp fullkomna jákvæða mynd af sjálfum sér. Hins vegar hafa möguleg neikvæð áhrif félagslegs samanburðar við einstaklinga sem eru betur settir lítið verið skoðuð á samfélagsmiðlum. Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar var að skoða möguleg neikvæð áhrif félagslegs samanburðar við betur setta einstaklinga á sjálfsálit og sjálfsmat og að skoða hvort áhrifin væru greinilegri hjá einstaklingum með þunglyndiseinkenni. Fimmtíu og átta grunnnemum í sálfræði var tilviljunarkennt skipt í tvo hópa, það er félagslegan samanburð við betur settan einstakling eða félagslegan samanburð við verr settan einstakling. Hagræðing samanburðar var gerð með mismunandi fjölda ummæla og fjölda aðila sem líkuðu við innlegg og myndir Facebook forsíðanna sem þátttakendur skoðuðu tímabundið. Í kjölfar þess að skoða Facebook forsíðurnar var enginn munur á milli hópa á sjálfsáliti eða sjálfsmati og það dró úr tímabundnu sjálfsáliti beggja hópa sem er ekki í samræmi við framsettar tilgátur. Í ljós kom samvirkni á milli félagslegs samanburðar og þunglyndiseinkenna á félagslegu sjálfsáliti og sjálfsmati sem bendir til þess að þynglyndir einstaklingar séu viðkvæmari fyrir félagslegum samanburði við einstaklinga sem virðast betur settir á samfélagsmiðlum. UPWARD SOCIAL COMPARISON ON FACEBOOK 4 Reduction in Self-Esteem and Self-Evaluation Following Upward Social Comparison on Facebook: Depression as a Moderator Facebook is currently the predominant online social networking site around the world (“Company Info | Facebook Newsroom,” 2014) and has become a great part of many people’s everyday routine. It has in turn caught the attention of many scholars and researchers who are interested in both the potential negative and positive effects that Facebook use might have on people’s lives. Although few studies have found that Facebook use can enhance self-esteem after viewing one’s own profile (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011) and help people to stay in touch with friends and family after moving away (N. B. Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007), Facebook use has been linked to a variety of negative consequences. For example, overuse and strong attachment to Facebook could be relate to Internet addiction (Kittinger, Correia, & Irons, 2012) and frequent Facebook use has been associated with reduction in subjective well-being over time, where moment-to-moment satisfaction and life satisfaction decline with more Facebook use (Kross et al., 2013). Facebook has approximately 829 million active daily users and the usage is particularly prevalent among young people (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Facebook is a context for a desirable self-presentation and identity management, where users can choose the content that goes on their profile that reflects their ideal image (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). Suppression activities like untagging unattractive photos or deleting undesirable content are also very common among users (Strano & Wattai Queen, 2012). Given that identity management is easy on Facebook, it has been suggested that Facebook is an ideal platform for upward social comparison (Chou & Edge, 2012). For instance, individuals that spend a lot of time on Facebook believe others to be more successful and happier than themselves. People compare themselves to others everyday, both consciously and unconsciously, which is a natural part of human behavior. According to Leon Festinger’s social comparison UPWARD SOCIAL COMPARISON ON FACEBOOK 5 theory (Festinger, 1954), individuals are driven to evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing themselves to others, in order to gain more accurate self-evaluation. A comparison to a superior other, Festinger termed an upward social comparison. However, individuals can also be motivated by downward social comparison, where a comparison is made with a less fortunate other (Wills, 1981). Studies have shown that upward social comparison can be constructive, as it can inspire people to become more similar to their comparison target (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997) or result in self-enhancement for individuals with low selfesteem in low threat situations (Wood, Giordano-Beech, Taylor, Michela, & Gaus, 1994). However, in most instances upward social comparison yields negative outcomes. It has been related to a decrease in subjective well-being (Wheeler & Miyake, 1992) and in individual’s momentary level of self-esteem, following temporary exposure to people with socially desirable characteristics (Morse & Gergen, 1970). Some characteristics have been found to increase upward social comparison. For example, high self-consciousness (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999), low self-certainty (Butzer & Kuiper, 2006) and negative mood or depressed affect (Wheeler & Miyake, 1992). It has been suggested that the influence of negative mood and depressed affect on upward social comparison is due to accessibility of happy memories and thoughts in a good mood, but the inverse in a bad mood (Bower, 1981). Furthermore, people in negative mood are likely to have negative thoughts and memories about themselves and more favorable thoughts towards others, because favorable thoughts towards others have been associated with negative feelings in the past (Wheeler & Miyake, 1992). For instance, depressed individuals engage more frequently in upward social comparison than nondepressed individuals and resultantly become more depressed (Bäzner, Brömer, Hammelstein, & Meyer, 2006; Swallow & Kuiper, 1992). These findings raise the possibility that the low self-esteem and the negative selfevaluation associated with depression (Kernis, Grannemann, & Mathis, 1991; Roberts & UPWARD SOCIAL COMPARISON ON FACEBOOK 6 Monroe, 1992; Tennen, Herzberger, & Nelson, 1987; Wood & Lockwood, 1999) could be maintained or even reinforced with frequent upward social comparison. Relatively few studies have been done on social comparison on Facebook. A correlational study (Lee, 2014) found that frequent Facebook users are more likely to engage in social comparison and that social comparison frequency was associated with more negative feelings and lower self-esteem. Even though these findings are consisted with prior research on social comparison, they are from a correlation study and need to be interpreted with caution. Most of existing literature on social comparison depends on self-reported social comparison, but people are usually reluctant to admit social comparison (Hemphill & Lehman, 1991). As of today, only two experiments have examined the negative impact of exposure to upward social comparison on Facebook. One of the experiments found that a temporarily exposure to an attractive profile (the upward comparison condition) resulted in less body satisfaction and a decrease in positive emotions (Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011). The other experiment found that participants that were temporarily exposed to a profile with many likes and comments (the upward comparison condition) reported lower state self-esteem and self-evaluation (Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014). Because of the popularity of Facebook and the shortage of research on social comparison on the site, the aim of the current study is to replicate the experiment of Vogel et al. (2014). In addition, given the literature discussed above about the relationship between depression and upward social comparison, the aim is also to extend previous research by examining if depressed affect moderates the relationship between upward social comparison and self-evaluation and self-esteem. It is hypothesized that: 1) participants exposed to upward social comparison will report lower state self-esteem and self-evaluation compared to those exposed to downward social comparison; 2) temporal self-esteem will decrease from before UPWARD SOCIAL COMPARISON ON FACEBOOK 7 to after exposure to the Facebook profiles, but only in the upward social comparison; 3) participants high in depressed affect will have lower state self-esteem and self-evaluation than participants low in depressed affect; 4) upward social comparison will negatively affect state self-esteem and self-evaluation, but only among those high in depressed affect. Method Participants Fifty-eight undergraduate psychology students from Reykjavik University in Iceland voluntarily participated in the experiment. The participants were Icelandic speaking first and second year students participating in the school’s Research Participants Pool and received course credit in exchange for participation. The average age of the conv |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/22557/1/FinalThesis_Skemman.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
