Author(s)

Ming Ding¹, Yaozhong Liu¹, Qinghua Li²

¹School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
²Heze University-Yuncheng, Heze, China.

As a concept and phenomenon with strong interpersonal attributes, social comparison shouldn’t be ignored its role in human interaction. This article outlines the interpersonal impact of social comparison, including pro-social behavior, conspicuous consumption, deception, and schadenfreude etc. According to the summary analysis, the upward comparison will bring more negative effects, and the downward comparison will bring more positive impacts. There have been some studies that have explored the psychological mechanisms of this process. Future research can make more exploration on the application scenes and psychological mechanisms.

Social Comparison, Interpersonal Impact, Psychological Mechanism

Ding, M. , Liu, Y. and Li, Q. (2018) The Interpersonal Impact of Social Comparison. Psychology, 9, 797-808. doi: 10.4236/psych.2018.94051.