As stated in the book Principles of Economics by N. Gregory Mankiw (2015), people respond to incentives. Previous researches have proved that social comparison does affect the performance level of individuals, both in the classroom and in the workplace. These foundings indicate that social comparison can be an incentive for the performance of individuals.
The fact that social comparison itself can generate a two-sided effect should be something that individuals should be concerned about. Positive comparing can help you boost your performance. However, negative comparing can bring self-destructive impacts. Hence, in order to cope up with that, Kathy Caprino (2017) stated that there are at least two things that individuals can do. First, individuals need to gain awareness of their thoughts. Individuals need to be aware of how harsh and judgemental they are to themselves then they can slowly gain control to release their thoughts. Second, individuals need to change the self-hating narrative. At the very least, individuals need to try this for a week so they can understand how tough they are to themselves and in the end, able to change the self-hating narrative.
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References
Buunk, B. P., Kuyper, H., & van der Zee, Y. G. (2005). Affective Response to Social Comparison in the Classroom. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27(3), 229–237.doi:10.1207/s15324834basp2703_4
Caprino, Kathy. (2017). When Comparing Yourself to Others Turns Self-Destructive. Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2017/08/18/when-comparing-yourself-to-others-turns-self-destructive/#52a5ef606539
Chou, H.-T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). “They are happier and having better lives than I am”: The impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others’ lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15, 117–121. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0324
Festinger, L. (1954). A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. doi:10.1177/001872675400700202
Gino, Francesca and Staats, Bradley R. (2011). Driven by Social Comparisons: How Feedback about Coworkers’ Effort Influences Individual Productivity. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper No. 11-078.
Goethals, G. R., & Darley, J. M. (1977). Social comparison theory: An attributional approach. In J. M. Suls & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Social comparison processes: Theoretical and empirical perspectives (pp. 259-278). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Mankiw, N. Gregory. (2015). Principles of Economics. Stamford, USA: Cengage Learning, 7-9.
