#socialcomparison — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #socialcomparison, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 5, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Study reveals a psychological link between feeling disadvantaged and using people
URL: https://www.psypost.org/feeling-deprived-causes-people-to-view-relationships-as-transactions/
Feeling left behind in the social hierarchy does more than just damage a person’s self-esteem. When people feel disadvantaged compared to their peers, they are more likely to view interpersonal relationships as mere transactions and treat others as tools for personal gain. These findings, published recently in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, map out how feelings of relative disadvantage can reshape how people navigate their social worlds.
Social comparisons are a natural part of human behavior. People constantly look to their peers to evaluate their own success, adjust their personal goals, and understand their place in society. Upward comparisons happen when a person looks at someone who has more wealth, a better job, or higher social standing. While this can sometimes motivate self-improvement, it often leaves people feeling intensely disadvantaged.
Psychologists call this experience personal relative deprivation. It is the subjective feeling that one is being treated unfairly compared to others, breeding frustration, anger, and resentment. Prior research shows that this sense of deprivation negatively impacts mental health and alters social behavior. It is linked to increased aggression, elevated greed, and a decreased willingness to engage in helpful behaviors.
Xuegang Zheng, Jie Leng, and Ping Hu, researchers at Renmin University of China, wanted to understand the psychological mechanisms that explain why feeling disadvantaged damages social bonds. They hypothesized that people who feel deprived start to view their peers as objects to be used rather than human beings with their own inner lives. In psychology, objectification occurs when a person’s autonomy, agency, and subjective experiences are ignored.
Instead, the person is treated as an instrument or a tool to achieve a specific goal. The researchers suspected that relative deprivation pushes people toward an exchange orientation in their relationships. In an exchange-oriented relationship, people interact based on the strict tracking of costs and benefits, much like a financial transaction. This contrasts with communal relationships, where people support each other based on mutual care without worrying about who owes whom.
To test these ideas, the researchers conducted three distinct investigations. The first was a large study involving 3,482 university freshmen in China. Participants completed standardized surveys measuring their subjective feelings of disadvantage in various aspects of life. They also answered questions assessing how often they treated their social contacts as mere tools for personal use.
The results of the first investigation revealed a reliable association between the two measures. Students who reported higher levels of relative deprivation also reported a greater tendency to objectify others. This relationship remained consistent even when the researchers adjusted the data to account for age and gender differences.
Because the first investigation relied on survey correlations, it could not determine if deprivation directly produced the objectifying behavior, nor did it explain how the psychological process worked. The researchers designed a second study to test whether a transactional mindset acted as the connecting mechanism. They recruited 250 adults to complete a more detailed online survey.
In this second phase, participants answered questions about relative deprivation and objectification, as well as their tendency to track costs and benefits in their friendships. To ensure the results were not just the byproduct of abrasive personalities, the survey included measures for dark personality traits, such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. It also measured each person’s general desire for social power.
The researchers found that the transactional mindset served as a psychological bridge. Feeling deprived was strongly linked to adopting an exchange orientation, which in turn predicted the objectification of others. This pathway remained robust even when factoring out the influence of dark personality traits and the desire for social dominance.
To establish a causal link, the researchers conducted a third study with 194 adults. They used an experimental design to actively manipulate feelings of deprivation. Participants read a science-fiction scenario asking them to imagine they lived on a newly discovered planet. On this planet, resources were stored vertically at high altitudes, meaning that the ability to fly was the single most important skill for securing a good life.
The participants were split into two experimental groups. One group compared their imagined status to the planet’s most successful residents, who held the most wealth, received the best education, and possessed the best jobs. This comparison was designed to provoke high relative deprivation. The other group compared themselves to the planet’s least successful residents, inducing a state of low relative deprivation.
After reflecting on their assigned status and writing a short description of their feelings, participants rated how they would approach new friendships on this world. They were asked to evaluate the importance of various traits in a potential friend. The researchers wanted to see if the deprived group would favor instrumental skills over interpersonal warmth.
The experiment showed that participants in the high deprivation group adopted a much stronger transactional mindset. When asked to evaluate what traits were important in a new friend, the highly deprived group placed greater importance on instrumental qualities, such as the person’s flying skills. The differences between the groups regarding interpersonal traits like kindness, shared values, or having an interesting personality were not statistically significant.
By manipulating the environment, the researchers demonstrated that a sense of deprivation directly causes people to view relationships through a cost-benefit lens. This transactional mindset leads individuals to value others primarily for their practical utility. Feeling left behind essentially trains the brain to look for relationships that offer a strategic advantage.
The study authors noted a few caveats regarding their methodology. The reliance on hypothetical scenarios and self-reported questionnaires might not perfectly capture how people treat one another in actual face-to-face interactions. The research also utilized participant samples entirely drawn from China. Different cultural norms surrounding fairness, wealth distribution, and community support might alter how people react to feeling disadvantaged.
Additionally, while the transactional mindset is a proven pathway to objectification, other psychological reactions might also contribute to the breakdown of social relationships when people feel left behind. Future research could explore whether interventions that emphasize community bonds can reverse this objectifying effect. Scientists could also investigate how long these transactional mindsets persist after a person’s social standing improves.
The study, “Personal Relative Deprivation Leads to the Objectification of Social Targets: Exchange Orientation as a Mechanism,” was authored by Xuegang Zheng, Jie Leng, and Ping Hu.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/feeling-deprived-causes-people-to-view-relationships-as-transactions/
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PersonalRelativeDeprivation #Objectification #SocialPsychology #RelationshipScience #TransactionalMindset #SocialComparison #InterpersonalRelations #ExchangeOrientation #MentalHealthImpact #ResearchFindings
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DATE: August 5, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Study reveals a psychological link between feeling disadvantaged and using people
URL: https://www.psypost.org/feeling-deprived-causes-people-to-view-relationships-as-transactions/
Feeling left behind in the social hierarchy does more than just damage a person’s self-esteem. When people feel disadvantaged compared to their peers, they are more likely to view interpersonal relationships as mere transactions and treat others as tools for personal gain. These findings, published recently in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, map out how feelings of relative disadvantage can reshape how people navigate their social worlds.
Social comparisons are a natural part of human behavior. People constantly look to their peers to evaluate their own success, adjust their personal goals, and understand their place in society. Upward comparisons happen when a person looks at someone who has more wealth, a better job, or higher social standing. While this can sometimes motivate self-improvement, it often leaves people feeling intensely disadvantaged.
Psychologists call this experience personal relative deprivation. It is the subjective feeling that one is being treated unfairly compared to others, breeding frustration, anger, and resentment. Prior research shows that this sense of deprivation negatively impacts mental health and alters social behavior. It is linked to increased aggression, elevated greed, and a decreased willingness to engage in helpful behaviors.
Xuegang Zheng, Jie Leng, and Ping Hu, researchers at Renmin University of China, wanted to understand the psychological mechanisms that explain why feeling disadvantaged damages social bonds. They hypothesized that people who feel deprived start to view their peers as objects to be used rather than human beings with their own inner lives. In psychology, objectification occurs when a person’s autonomy, agency, and subjective experiences are ignored.
Instead, the person is treated as an instrument or a tool to achieve a specific goal. The researchers suspected that relative deprivation pushes people toward an exchange orientation in their relationships. In an exchange-oriented relationship, people interact based on the strict tracking of costs and benefits, much like a financial transaction. This contrasts with communal relationships, where people support each other based on mutual care without worrying about who owes whom.
To test these ideas, the researchers conducted three distinct investigations. The first was a large study involving 3,482 university freshmen in China. Participants completed standardized surveys measuring their subjective feelings of disadvantage in various aspects of life. They also answered questions assessing how often they treated their social contacts as mere tools for personal use.
The results of the first investigation revealed a reliable association between the two measures. Students who reported higher levels of relative deprivation also reported a greater tendency to objectify others. This relationship remained consistent even when the researchers adjusted the data to account for age and gender differences.
Because the first investigation relied on survey correlations, it could not determine if deprivation directly produced the objectifying behavior, nor did it explain how the psychological process worked. The researchers designed a second study to test whether a transactional mindset acted as the connecting mechanism. They recruited 250 adults to complete a more detailed online survey.
In this second phase, participants answered questions about relative deprivation and objectification, as well as their tendency to track costs and benefits in their friendships. To ensure the results were not just the byproduct of abrasive personalities, the survey included measures for dark personality traits, such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. It also measured each person’s general desire for social power.
The researchers found that the transactional mindset served as a psychological bridge. Feeling deprived was strongly linked to adopting an exchange orientation, which in turn predicted the objectification of others. This pathway remained robust even when factoring out the influence of dark personality traits and the desire for social dominance.
To establish a causal link, the researchers conducted a third study with 194 adults. They used an experimental design to actively manipulate feelings of deprivation. Participants read a science-fiction scenario asking them to imagine they lived on a newly discovered planet. On this planet, resources were stored vertically at high altitudes, meaning that the ability to fly was the single most important skill for securing a good life.
The participants were split into two experimental groups. One group compared their imagined status to the planet’s most successful residents, who held the most wealth, received the best education, and possessed the best jobs. This comparison was designed to provoke high relative deprivation. The other group compared themselves to the planet’s least successful residents, inducing a state of low relative deprivation.
After reflecting on their assigned status and writing a short description of their feelings, participants rated how they would approach new friendships on this world. They were asked to evaluate the importance of various traits in a potential friend. The researchers wanted to see if the deprived group would favor instrumental skills over interpersonal warmth.
The experiment showed that participants in the high deprivation group adopted a much stronger transactional mindset. When asked to evaluate what traits were important in a new friend, the highly deprived group placed greater importance on instrumental qualities, such as the person’s flying skills. The differences between the groups regarding interpersonal traits like kindness, shared values, or having an interesting personality were not statistically significant.
By manipulating the environment, the researchers demonstrated that a sense of deprivation directly causes people to view relationships through a cost-benefit lens. This transactional mindset leads individuals to value others primarily for their practical utility. Feeling left behind essentially trains the brain to look for relationships that offer a strategic advantage.
The study authors noted a few caveats regarding their methodology. The reliance on hypothetical scenarios and self-reported questionnaires might not perfectly capture how people treat one another in actual face-to-face interactions. The research also utilized participant samples entirely drawn from China. Different cultural norms surrounding fairness, wealth distribution, and community support might alter how people react to feeling disadvantaged.
Additionally, while the transactional mindset is a proven pathway to objectification, other psychological reactions might also contribute to the breakdown of social relationships when people feel left behind. Future research could explore whether interventions that emphasize community bonds can reverse this objectifying effect. Scientists could also investigate how long these transactional mindsets persist after a person’s social standing improves.
The study, “Personal Relative Deprivation Leads to the Objectification of Social Targets: Exchange Orientation as a Mechanism,” was authored by Xuegang Zheng, Jie Leng, and Ping Hu.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/feeling-deprived-causes-people-to-view-relationships-as-transactions/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PersonalRelativeDeprivation #Objectification #SocialPsychology #RelationshipScience #TransactionalMindset #SocialComparison #InterpersonalRelations #ExchangeOrientation #MentalHealthImpact #ResearchFindings
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DATE: July 31, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Income inequality heightens status anxiety and self-objectification across genders
Greater income inequality and worries about social standing may encourage both women and men to base more of their personal worth on appearance, according to two experiments published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Self-objectification refers to viewing and evaluating oneself primarily through physical appearance, almost as if observing one’s body from another person’s perspective. Previous research has linked this with body shame, appearance anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
Traditional explanations have focused largely on women being routinely judged according to their attractiveness in societies characterized by unequal gender relations. However, self-objectification is also increasingly recognized among men. The researchers proposed that wider economic conditions might provide another explanation: when differences between rich and poor become highly visible, people may become more concerned about social rank and use their appearance to demonstrate value or success.
Led by Khandis Blake of the University of Melbourne, the researchers conducted two online experiments involving a combined final sample of 1,458 people. Participants entered a fictional society called Bimboola and were shown how income was distributed among its residents. Everyone was placed in the middle-income group, but the difference between Bimboola’s richest and poorest residents varied between participants.
In the first experiment, the final sample included 468 university students (339 females, average age of 20.86 years). After viewing one of 10 different income distributions, participants selected a house, car, phone and holiday consistent with their assigned income. They then answered questions about their concerns regarding appearance, wealth, education, career, parenting and life achievements, as well as how strongly they were currently judging themselves through appearance.
Participants exposed to greater inequality reported more self-objectification. Inequality also increased anxiety about material wealth, career success, education and life achievements. Notably, however, inequality did not increase anxiety about appearance itself, suggesting that people in unequal environments self-objectify not because they are worried about how they look, but because they are worried about their socioeconomic standing. Concerns about material wealth, career success, education and life achievements each partly explained the association between inequality and self-objectification. However, because this was a statistical explanation rather than direct proof of the underlying process, the researchers conducted a second experiment.
The second experiment included 990 participants (581 females, average age of 24.84 years). In addition to experiencing different levels of inequality, participants imagined either achieving career success, becoming successful through their appearance on social media, or experiencing neither form of success.
Income inequality again increased self-objectification, but the type of success participants experienced had a considerably larger effect. Career success reduced self-objectification relative to the control condition. By contrast, appearance success increased it substantially, even though participants became more confident about their attractiveness. Interestingly, manipulating status concerns did not weaken the effect of inequality itself, suggesting that inequality and status concerns may operate as independent routes to self-objectification rather than one working strictly through the other.
Appearance success also made participants feel more successful in unrelated areas, reducing concerns about wealth and overall life achievements. This may help explain why appearance-based status seeking remains appealing: looking successful can create a wider sense of social standing. However, it also increased anxiety about education and parenting. Career success reduced concerns across more areas, including wealth, education and life achievements—although it, too, increased anxiety about parenting—making it the more broadly beneficial status pathway overall.
The findings were strikingly similar for men and women. As the researchers concluded, “Recognising that status concerns fuel and sustain self-objectification for both men and women helps explain its persistence despite weakening patriarchal norms.”
Several caveats remain. For example, Bimboola was fictional, and short-term reactions to an imagined economy may differ from living with inequality over many years.
The study, “Income inequality and status concerns in multiple life domains increase self-objectification for both women and men,” was authored by Khandis Blake, Marta Kowal, Brock Bastian, Jacob Kuek, Auguste Harrington, Sylvia Harmon-Jones and Robert C. Brooks.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IncomeInequality #SelfObjectification #StatusAnxiety #AppearanceAndWealth #GenderEquality #SocialComparison #EconomicDisparities #CareerSuccessVsAppearance #BodyImage #MentalHealthResearch
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DATE: July 31, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Income inequality heightens status anxiety and self-objectification across genders
Greater income inequality and worries about social standing may encourage both women and men to base more of their personal worth on appearance, according to two experiments published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Self-objectification refers to viewing and evaluating oneself primarily through physical appearance, almost as if observing one’s body from another person’s perspective. Previous research has linked this with body shame, appearance anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
Traditional explanations have focused largely on women being routinely judged according to their attractiveness in societies characterized by unequal gender relations. However, self-objectification is also increasingly recognized among men. The researchers proposed that wider economic conditions might provide another explanation: when differences between rich and poor become highly visible, people may become more concerned about social rank and use their appearance to demonstrate value or success.
Led by Khandis Blake of the University of Melbourne, the researchers conducted two online experiments involving a combined final sample of 1,458 people. Participants entered a fictional society called Bimboola and were shown how income was distributed among its residents. Everyone was placed in the middle-income group, but the difference between Bimboola’s richest and poorest residents varied between participants.
In the first experiment, the final sample included 468 university students (339 females, average age of 20.86 years). After viewing one of 10 different income distributions, participants selected a house, car, phone and holiday consistent with their assigned income. They then answered questions about their concerns regarding appearance, wealth, education, career, parenting and life achievements, as well as how strongly they were currently judging themselves through appearance.
Participants exposed to greater inequality reported more self-objectification. Inequality also increased anxiety about material wealth, career success, education and life achievements. Notably, however, inequality did not increase anxiety about appearance itself, suggesting that people in unequal environments self-objectify not because they are worried about how they look, but because they are worried about their socioeconomic standing. Concerns about material wealth, career success, education and life achievements each partly explained the association between inequality and self-objectification. However, because this was a statistical explanation rather than direct proof of the underlying process, the researchers conducted a second experiment.
The second experiment included 990 participants (581 females, average age of 24.84 years). In addition to experiencing different levels of inequality, participants imagined either achieving career success, becoming successful through their appearance on social media, or experiencing neither form of success.
Income inequality again increased self-objectification, but the type of success participants experienced had a considerably larger effect. Career success reduced self-objectification relative to the control condition. By contrast, appearance success increased it substantially, even though participants became more confident about their attractiveness. Interestingly, manipulating status concerns did not weaken the effect of inequality itself, suggesting that inequality and status concerns may operate as independent routes to self-objectification rather than one working strictly through the other.
Appearance success also made participants feel more successful in unrelated areas, reducing concerns about wealth and overall life achievements. This may help explain why appearance-based status seeking remains appealing: looking successful can create a wider sense of social standing. However, it also increased anxiety about education and parenting. Career success reduced concerns across more areas, including wealth, education and life achievements—although it, too, increased anxiety about parenting—making it the more broadly beneficial status pathway overall.
The findings were strikingly similar for men and women. As the researchers concluded, “Recognising that status concerns fuel and sustain self-objectification for both men and women helps explain its persistence despite weakening patriarchal norms.”
Several caveats remain. For example, Bimboola was fictional, and short-term reactions to an imagined economy may differ from living with inequality over many years.
The study, “Income inequality and status concerns in multiple life domains increase self-objectification for both women and men,” was authored by Khandis Blake, Marta Kowal, Brock Bastian, Jacob Kuek, Auguste Harrington, Sylvia Harmon-Jones and Robert C. Brooks.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IncomeInequality #SelfObjectification #StatusAnxiety #AppearanceAndWealth #GenderEquality #SocialComparison #EconomicDisparities #CareerSuccessVsAppearance #BodyImage #MentalHealthResearch
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Compararte en redes: el perfeccionismo procrastina
#MindFuelForAll #miCanal #ImpostorSyndrome #PerfectionismProcrastination #SocialComparison #CompararteEnRedes #PerfeccionismoEnRedes
🎥 Mira el video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m09E9rg5cA
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I’ve been thinking about the nasty comments I saw yesterday on Twitter when someone described their attempts to seek safe medical treatment. They were #Immunocompromised. #MaskMandates were cancelled at the hospital.
The #DumpsterFire:
Doctors, #MedicalStaff refused to #mask, even if it could save the life of their patients.
Bystanders and twitter replies were hostile, called out the disabled patient for being not-normal, weak, demanding.
Commenters used logical fallacies, distracting arguments to make their points on how the patient’s health was not important enough to rate any consideration.So pointing out the benefits, the mortality, the simplicity of masking to protect someone didn’t work. I wonder what #SocialComparison may have helped. “Most people…” “People in your community are…” “The smartest folk…”
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Paper alert: Pete McCarthy's impressive work with the Comparison Standards Scale for Appearance!
He explored the affective impact of comparison frequency and discrepancy, mediated/moderated by appearance schemas and psychopathology (N=300). Check it out:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280072
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Paper alert: Pete McCarthy's impressive work with the Comparison Standards Scale for Appearance!
He explored the affective impact of comparison frequency and discrepancy, mediated/moderated by appearance schemas and psychopathology (N=300). Check it out:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280072
