“Looking up” linked to feeling down: a meta-analysis of online upward social comparison and psychological maladjustment

Abstract

IntroductionSocial media has become a routine setting for self-evaluation, and upward social comparison with perceived better-off others may be associated with psychological maladjustment. However, the average magnitude of this association across outcome domains and the contextual factors that may moderate it remain unclear.MethodsThis meta-analysis synthesized 94 effect sizes from 54 independent samples (N = 36,583) using a three-level random-effects framework that modeled dependence among effect sizes within studies.ResultsThe estimated average correlation between upward social comparison and psychological maladjustment was r¯ = 0.330, 95% CI [0.289, 0.370]. Outcome domains differed significantly, QM(4) = 47.84, p < 0.001. After reverse-coding positively valenced outcomes, the largest average estimate was observed for social-evaluative negative emotions (r¯ = 0.438), followed by anxiety (r¯ = 0.382), depression (r¯ = 0.306), lower wellbeing (r¯ = 0.268), and lower self-esteem (r¯ = 0.263). No significant moderating effects were detected for age, cultural background, or data collection year in the outcome-specific models, and exploratory design-based comparisons did not indicate stronger overall effects in longitudinal than in cross-sectional studies.DiscussionOnline upward social comparison is, on average, associated with multiple indicators of poorer psychological functioning, with particularly strong links to social-evaluative negative emotions. These findings highlight the need for future longitudinal and culturally contextualized research on digital comparison processes.