Social Comparison

Now that it is known that images in the media can cause certain women to perform social comparison, it is vital for the original hypothesis to see if this comparison brought on by images impacts self-esteem. A study by Vogels et al. (2015) suggests that social comparison orientation (SCO) produces negative outcomes is associated with social media use. SCO is the same factor as the social comparison (SO) in the Dittmar and Howard (2004) study. They believe that people high in SCO are very aware of people around them and thus are more drawn to social media because the expansive networks allow individuals to connect to a wide variety of others, and we can learn a large amount about these people from their profiles, inciting upward social comparison.
The research is focused around two main ideas. First, because of the rich information about others on social media, those who socially compare should be more inclined to use social media. Second, because social media allows for upward social comparison, it has negative psychological consequences. The main purpose of the study was then to examine the association between social comparison and social media usage in relation to self-esteem (p. 249-250). To determine social comparison’s relation to self-esteem, the research was decided into two separate studies. In the first study, 145 undergraduates (106 female) were surveyed on the frequency of their Facebook use, and if they thought it interfered with their everyday life. The survey was then repeated with 275 undergraduates. The second study looked at the difference between high SCO and low SCO. One-hundred and twenty undergraduates (92 female) were randomly assigned to look at an individual’s Facebook profile who was comparable to themselves, to look at their own profile or to look at information about a product. After, the participants evaluated their own self-esteems and trait perceptions (p. 250-252). The results from the first study found that SCO positively correlated with Facebook use.
Results from the second study show that those with lower self-esteem had higher SCO. Overall, the researchers found that Facebook is appealing to those who have high SCO despite the negative outcomes. They also found that those with high SCO may use Facebook for self-improvement as it is key in social comparison. Lastly, they found that due to social comparison, those high in SCO will feel better about their own selves by looking at others who are doing well. As found in the Dittmar and Howard (2004) study, certain women are prone to social comparison. Because of this, the results from the Vogels et al. (2015) study support the hypothesis that media images cause an increase in social comparison and thus a lowered self-esteem. Because the participants were looking mainly at images on Facebook, it can be assumed that similar results would come from a study of other image-based social medias. Additionally, the result that a lower self-esteem correlates to higher social comparison is vital to the support of the main hypothesis (p. 252-255). Results from Goodings and Tucker’s (2014) study should also be taken into consideration when looking at the relationship between SCO and social media platforms. Their study found that these platforms, especially Facebook, have a high multiplicity. Because of this, individuals can create multiple selves. In this, individuals are able to display certain features
of themselves and act as their own gatekeepers. Being able to pick and choose what to put on a social media highlights what individuals want others to see. Thus, factor SCO should increase as individuals are given greater gatekeeping ability (p. 45).
Conclusion
The hypothesis that the growing use of images on social media outlets causes young women an increase in body surveillance, self-objectification and higher levels of social comparison lowering their overall self-esteem was confirmed with several research studies. First, the study by Jennifer Stevens Aubrey (2009) supported the hypothesis by showing that young women have seen an increase in self-objectification over time. This was important to determine before self-esteem could be assessed. Next, Vandenbosch and Eggermont (2012) showed that social media affects body surveillance and self-objectification in young women, which was vital because it showed that social media was tied to surveillance and self-objectification. The study by Dittmar and Howard (2004) support the proposition that the amount of images on social media is growing and Simon and Hoyt (2012) found that these images affect women’s social comparison. Thus, the problem is growing and women are mainly affected. Lastly, Vogels et al. (2015) found that social media images can increase social comparison and hinder self-esteem. This final study helps support that self-esteem is affected by social media images.