The role of the big five personality dimensions in the direction and affective consequences of everyday social comparisons

The authors investigated the role of personality in everyday social compari sons. Participants were 133 students who completed the NEO Personality Inve ntory-Revised. For the following 2 weeks, they recorded their comparisons a nd positive and negative affect using the Rochester Social Comparison Recor d. Analysis using Hierarchical Linear Modeling showed that people high in N euroticism reported a greater increase in positive affect after comparing d ownward than people low on the dimension. Furthermore, people high in Extra version and low in Agreeableness compared downward more. People high in Ope nness compared upward more and reported less of a decrease in positive affe ct after making these comparisons. These findings are discussed in relation to downward comparison theory, the selective-priming model, and the attrib utes of the five personality dimensions.