Investigating the Effect of Social Comparison on Helping Behavior: The Moderating Role of Self-Construal Level and the Mediating Role of Emotion: An Abstract

Abstract

We are faced every day with social comparison about our performances, abilities, appearance, attributes, or emotional states relative to others’ (Gerber and Wheeler 2018). Some comparisons are positive, that is, we are better than peers on certain tasks or dimensions. This type of comparison is also called downward comparison. Some comparisons might be negative, that it, we are worse than peers on certain tasks or dimensions. Such comparison is called upward comparison. Both directions of comparison appear as part of a rich social milieu. They not only play a role in self-evaluation but also have significant effect on intrapersonal consequences (Corcoran et al. 2011). Researchers have been interested in examining the effect of social comparison on prosocial behavior (e.g., Klein 2003; Schlosser and Levy 2016; Yip and Kelly 2013). However, the current findings are mixed and far from being inclusive. Klein (2003) found that people show higher prosocial behavior when making downward social comparison compared to those making upward social comparisons. While Shipley (2005) found that people increase donation after receiving upward social comparison information. Furthermore, Yip and Kelly (2013) showed that individuals are less likely to give after making social comparison, regardless of the direction of the comparison. Obviously, the influence of social comparison on prosocial behavior is more complex than a simple main effect. We suspect that the mixed effects are caused by some unmeasured factors that change people’s interpretation of the upward or downward differences in social comparison. We propose that when individuals receive feedback about upward or downward comparison, their self-construal level may affect how they process the information of upward/downward difference, thus influence if they choose to help others or not. There are two kinds of self-construal that are especially powerful in influencing one’s relation to the social world and available to be activated at different times or in different contexts, the personal-self and the social-self (Cross et al. 2011; Oyserman and Lee 2008). We demonstrate that when the individuals are personal-self (vs. social-self), downward comparison can induce more scorn, and scorn can decrease their prosocial behavior. Whereas, the upward comparison can induce more envy, and envy can decrease their prosocial behavior. When the individuals are personal-self (vs. social-self), downward comparison can induce more sympathy, and sympathy can increase their prosocial behavior. Whereas, upward comparison can induce inspiration, and inspiration can increase their prosocial behavior.