Social comparison on Facebook: Motivation, affective consequences, self esteem, and Facebook fatigue
Abstract A growing body of research examines social comparison on Facebook, a social media environment where users can present optimized versions of themselves. To grasp the complexity of social comparison on Facebook, the researchers followed Helgeson and Mickelson's (1995) functional approach, focusing on motives (i.e. self enhancement, self improvement, self evaluation, and self destruction) rather than fixed targets (i.e. downward, upward, and unilateral comparison) of social comparison. Social comparison motivations were explored in relation to self esteem and affective consequences of comparison. A college student sample N 267) reported engaging in social comparison frequently on Facebook and low self esteem (LSE) individuals were more likely than those with higher self esteem (HSE) to compare themselves to others on Facebook for self evaluation, self enhancement, self improvement, and self destruction motives. Moreover, LSEs perceived increased levels of social comparison on Facebook, although the relationship between self esteem and actual social comparison behavior proved non significant. Significant moderating effects of self esteem were observed in the relationship between motivation and affect. A self improvement motive produced greater positive affect among HSEs compared to LSEs, while self enhancement motives engendered positive affect more prominently among LSEs compared to HSEs. The paper also begins to distill a popular phenomenon, Facebook fatigue, in social comparison empirical work.
Comput. Hum. Behav.