AIMING AT THE TOP - UPWARD SOCIAL-COMPARISON OF ABILITIES AFTER FAILURE

This study examined the effects of feedback on a task on information s eeking and partner preferences as forms of social comparison. It was p redicted that subjects who experienced failure and perceived control o ver future performance would, for reasons of self-improvement, choose more strongly upward a comparison other than subjects who experienced success or perceived no control. In the experiment, 121 college studen ts were given either failure, average, or success feedback on a bogus test for either a stable or a controllable ability. Next, the subjects choose a comparison other whose test material they would examine, and a comparison other as a partner for writing an evaluation of the test . As predicted, the preferences for information seeking and affiliatio n were more strongly upward when subjects experienced failure than whe n subjects experienced success. Perceived control partly resulted in m ore strongly upward choices in information seeking for subjects experi encing failure.