Mapping the social contours of social comparison orientation: Online social identification might make us more susceptible to ability comparisons

Social comparisons, especially ability comparisons, are one of the primary mechanisms through which social media use may harm its users. Yet little is known about what motivates this activity, and how social comparison tendencies are encouraged by the social environment. Furthermore, it is not clear what individuals might try to attain by making social comparisons beyond self-evaluation. We investigated how ability-comparison orientation, the motivation to compare one's own abilities and attributes to other people, is associated with social identification with online groups and networks. Using longitudinal survey data covering adult populations (ages from 18 to 75) from five European countries (Finland [N = 1541], France [N = 1561], Germany [N = 1529], Ireland [N = 1112], and Poland [N = 1533]), we employed mixed modeling, cross-lagged panel modeling, and mediation analysis to analyze within-person and between-person changes in ability-comparison orientation. We found that group identification was associated with positive within-person and between-person changes in ability comparison orientation and that personal self-verification partially mediated this relationship. The social context might be important in understanding why individuals are motivated to make ability comparisons. The results further suggest that both ability comparison-motivation and the self-verification motive, seen traditionally as egocentric phenomena, might be examined from a more social perspective. Ability comparisons might be motivated by group inclusion, at least in the online context.