Bridging Social Comparison and Empathy: The Mediating Role of Resilience

Social comparison and empathy are essential psychological processes that influence interpersonalrelationships, individuals’ perceptions of others, and self-perception. While existingresearch has established a direct link between these two concepts, the mechanisms underlyingtheir relationship remain poorly understood. This research investigates the potential mediatingrole of resilience in explaining how empathy affects social comparison. A cross-sectionalstudy design was utilized, involving 501 participants from Turkey. Structural equation modeling(SEM) was used to examine whether resilience mediates the relationship between socialcomparison and empathy. The analysis revealed a significant positive association betweensocial comparison and empathy. Notably, resilience mediated this relationship. Participantswith higher resilience were more likely to respond empathetically during social comparisonexperiences, indicating resilience’s significant role in fostering empathetic outcomes. Bootstrapresampling procedures with 1000 iterations were performed to estimate the significanceand robustness of the indirect (mediating) effects. The study highlights resilience as a keypsychological mechanism connecting social comparison and empathy. When resilience wasaccounted for in the analysis, the direct relationship between empathy and social comparisonbecame nonsignificant, indicating that resilience fully mediated this association. These findingsextend theoretical knowledge by clarifying emotional and cognitive pathways involved insocial evaluations. Practically, the results suggest interventions aimed at enhancing resiliencemay effectively increase empathetic responses in social contexts.