Sagot :
Answer: Social comparison theory
Let’s start with the first question, why do we compare ourselves to other people. And to answer this question we’re going to look at some research done more than 60 years ago. In 1954 psychologist Leon Festinger proposed the social comparison theory which studies this tendency to compare ourselves with others and seeks to find some answers as to why we do it.
The social comparison theory is kind of long and contains 9 separate hypotheses, as well as several corollaries and derivations, so I’m going to summarize and simplify some of the most important points.
Humans have an innate drive to evaluate our opinions and our abilities, and also a drive to improve our abilities. If we don’t have an objective means to evaluate those things then we compare them with other people’s abilities and opinions. Social comparison theory also talks about how we typically choose who to compare ourselves with.
Why do we compare ourselves to other people?
So I’m going to go back to my original questions. The first question is ‘Why do we compare ourselves to other people?’ The social comparison theory highlights some observable human behaviors which are useful, but to understand why we do these things, we need to not only observe the data but also read between the lines.
As human beings we have a few basic questions. Who am I? How am I doing? Am I improving? Do I fit in? Festinger’s social comparison theory addresses our natural methods of trying to answer those questions.
An attempt to meet basic needs
To say it another way, as humans we have a few basic needs. First, we want to know who we are, we want to understand our own identity, we want to be able to define ourselves. Second, we want to see how we’re doing. We want to progress and become better. Third, we want to belong. Humans are social creatures, we want relationships and connections with other people. Although Festinger doesn’t specifically use the words ‘belonging’ or ‘fit in.’ He does talk about our attraction to groups with similar opinions and the changes we’re willing to make to align with those groups. I think today we would use the word ‘belonging.’
How to define a human
One point that Festinger brilliantly observes, is that human beings can’t actually define themselves intrinsically or independently. They can only define themselves in relation to someone else. The only exception that I can think of is Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. If you ask him who he is or what he is, he’ll just answer “I am Groot.” He defines himself intrinsically and independently, but he’s not a human (and he’s not real).
If you ask anybody else, they’ll give an answer that includes a relationship to another person or their association with a group, usually a profession. For example, when people introduce themselves, they usually say something like, “Hi, I’m a teacher,” (or a doctor, or a mechanic, or whatever their profession may be).
If you press further into the question “Who are you?” they’ll usually answer with things like, I am a mother or father, I’m a sister or brother, an aunt or uncle. People define themselves in relation to someone else or something else. We can’t get away with just saying, “I am Groot” as a definition of who we are.
So one of the reasons why we compare ourselves to other people is to define and understand our own identity.
The need for a measuring stick
Humans also want to progress and become better, we have an innate drive to evaluate ourselves. We want to see how we’re doing; we want a measuring stick of some kind, and if we don’t have an objective means to evaluate our abilities and our opinions then we compare them with other people’s abilities and opinions.
People also want to belong; we want to be connected to other people. We compare our abilities and our opinions in order to seek groups that are similarly minded, we’re searching for where we fit in.
We compare ourselves to other people as an attempt to evaluate our abilities and meet some very basic human needs.
Is there any benefit to comparing with others?
My next question was “Is there any benefit to seeing how we stack up against others?”
My answer is, “It depends.”
It depends on why we’re comparing ourselves in the first place. Wait a minute, didn’t I already answer that question, it’s about evaluating ourselves and meeting our needs for identity, progression, and belonging? Well, yes, and no. It gets a little more complicated.
Yes, we’re trying to meet our needs and evaluate ourselves, but how are we going about meeting those needs? Are we comparing to objectively evaluate our abilities, or are we comparing to determine our value and our worth?
Explanation: