Adults have rather stable, yet domain-specific tendencies in social and temporal comparisons

Past research on how people evaluate and compare themselves in central characteristics focuses strongly on preconditions, processes, and consequences of such comparisons while neglecting individual differences. The current study bridges social and personality research by examining domain specificity, temporal stability, and age differences of social and past-temporal comparisons. Using lifespan samples from Germany (N = 313, 18-84 years, 49.8% female) and the USA (N = 302, 18-72 years, 52.0% female), participants reported the frequency and perceived usefulness of social and past-temporal comparisons concerning five domains: emotional stability, extraversion, physical appearance, professional success, and personal life. The results show that individual differences in comparison tendencies were rather domain-specific. Within a specific life domain, the usage of social and past-temporal comparisons was strongly correlated. Individual differences in comparison tendencies were moderately stable over four weeks (~ 0.60). With older age, participants indicated using comparisons less frequently and seeing them as less useful than young adults. We discuss that future research on social and temporal comparisons would benefit from a trait-state approach taking individual differences in domain-specific comparisons and the co-occurrence of social and temporal comparisons into account.