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social dynamics
Your sense of self-worth is tethered to others' success.
Individuals prefer to evaluate their abilities using objective standards when available, turning to social comparison only when such objective means are lacking.
Festinger (1954) identified social comparison as a response to the unavailability of objective, nonsocial means of evaluation.
Your progress feels like failure when measured against the wrong yardstick.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Festinger (1954)
- What the check found
- The claim misrepresents the hierarchy of Festinger's theory; objective evaluation remains the preferred method when possible.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.