Experimentally Testing the Tree-Factor Structure of Socio-Emotional Comparisons

Abstract

Evolutionary theories posit that comparisons to others are essential in determining

one’s relative position in a social hierarchy. Social comparison information can help

guide behaviour in several ways, but has been associated with different adverse

psychological issues (e.g., depression; stress). However, a purely cognitive view of social

comparisons ignores the emotional content that usually accompanies them. A novel

construct named socioemotional comparisons (SEC) is theorized to bridge the cognitionemotion

gap. SEC is defined as experiences of negative affect following a subjective

evaluation of unfair or unjust disadvantage compared to another. These comparisons are

represented by three factors: malicious envy, low self-esteem, and justice sensitivity. No

study, however, has examined SEC’s proposed three-factor structure. In addition, the

intercorrelation of SEC’s factors should not be better explained by confounding variables

such as the experience of negative affect. This research attempted to validate the SEC

construct through a series of experiments. I conducted three experiments, each

manipulating a separate SEC factor. I then examined how experimental manipulations

changed SEC scores, and whether these changes remained once negative affect was

controlled for. Results showed that experimental manipulations of malicious envy did not

significantly change SEC total or factor scores. Manipulations of self-esteem and justice

sensitivity significantly changed SEC total and factor scores. However, once negative

affect was controlled for, these effects disappeared. In light of these results, the nature

and definition of the SEC construct, limitations of the present study, clinical and

theoretical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.