Responses to hedonically conflicting social comparisons: comparing happy and unhappy people

Two laboratory studies explored how self-rated unhappy and happy students b alance hedonically conflicting social comparison information, and tested wh ether unhappy students would be relatively more sensitive to hedonically co nsistent unfavorable information. In both studies, students working in team s of four competed against one other team on a novel verbal task. First, un happy participants showed relatively greater sensitivity to undiluted unfav orable feedback-about group standing (e.g. your team 'lost'; Study 1) and a bout group and individual standing (e.g. your team lost and you were placed last; Study 2). Second, unhappy students were more reactive than happy stu dents to individual social comparison information in the context of relativ e group feedback. In Study 1, the moods and self-assessments of unhappy ind ividuals (but not happy ones) after news of team defeat appeared to be buff ered by the additional news of personal triumph. In Study 2, unhappy studen ts showed relatively larger decreases in mood and ability assessments after unfavorable than after favorable individual feedback (i.e. ranking last ve rsus first), regardless of whether they, additionally learned that their te ams had won or lost. The role of students' attributions and perceptions of their personal contribution was also explored. Implications of these findin gs for the links among social comparison, cognitive processes, and hedonic consequences are discussed. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.