Temporal Comparisons Elicit Greater Pride, Lower Shame, and Stronger Improvement Orientation Among Chinese Children

BACKGROUND: Upward social comparisons are widely used to encourage effort, yet they often lead to negative emotions. Temporal comparisons may support self-improvement while preserving positive self-experience. This study investigates whether temporal comparisons offer these potential benefits for Chinese children. METHODS: Two between-subjects experiments were conducted with Chinese primary and secondary school students (aged 8-16 years) in autumn 2024. We manipulated comparison type and comparison direction through reading-writing tasks. Study 1 (N = 632, 51% girls) used writing tasks involving comparisons with better or worse peers or past selves, alongside a no-comparison control. Study 2 added 285 participants (51% girls) who imagined and wrote about better or worse future selves, sharing the social-comparison and control groups from Study 1. After the tasks, participants reported pride, shame, improvement goals, and superiority goals. RESULTS: Past-self comparisons elicited greater pride, less shame, and a higher improvement-to-superiority goal ratio than social comparisons and no comparison; Comparing with a better past self elicited greater pride and lower shame than comparing with superior others. Future-self comparisons elicited greater pride, less shame, and a higher improvement-to-superiority goal ratio than social comparisons; Comparison with a worse future self preserved greater pride than comparison with superior others. CONCLUSIONS: Temporal comparisons, including both past-self and future-self comparisons, showed emotional and motivational advantages among Chinese children.