2004 University of Michigan Poverty Research Grants
Funded research
Stephen M. Garcia, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor, Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business, Harvard University.
Social Comparison on the Curve of Success: Differential Satisfaction with Disadvantageously Unequal Payoffs
Description
Social Comparison is a fundamental process of everyday life and provides us with information on our security, stability, and subjective well-being. When we compare ourselves to other individuals who are less successful than us on a dimension that we value, we typically experience a boost in confidence, self-esteem, and subjective well-being. On the other hand, when we compare ourselves to other individuals who are more successful on a dimension that we value, we generally experience a painful decrease in our subjective well-being.
This project seeks to explore whether the pain of upward social comparison is the same for individuals on the disadvantaged side of the distribution of success versus the advantaged side. The central hypothesis to be tested is that upward social comparisons may be less painful among individuals closer to the bottom than the top of a distribution, provided one’s position on the distribution is made salient. In other words, the subjective pain of upward social comparisons depends on one’s standing on a particular dimension of success.
The proposed research offers policy implications to the extent that it investigates attitudes about inequality. That is, we argue that the upward social comparison experienced among individuals who are in the middle or bottom the distribution will be less painful than among individuals near the top of the distribution, as long as these individuals are made consciously aware of their economic standing in the greater context of the distribution. As a result, individuals near the middle or bottom of the income distribution should become more satisfied with disadvantageously unequal payoffs between themselves and their respective peers, compared to individuals near the top of the distribution and their respective peers.
This research also suggests another mechanism for why the middle class is more willing to accept tax cut inequalities. More specifically, the present research would suggest that the pain of interpersonal social comparison is greater among individuals near the top of the distribution than among those near the middle or bottom, where disadvantageous inequalities are consequently easier to accept.
Barr | Dinzey-Flores | Garcia | Rivas | Index
