Facebook and Self-Perception: Individual Susceptibility to Negative Social Comparison on Facebook

• In Event: Facebook as a Social Comparison Neighborhood

Abstract

The use of social network sites (SNS) is believed to evoke negative social comparison (i.e., feeling like others are doing better than oneself), which is detrimental to perceptions about the self according to social comparison theory. The relationship between Facebook use and social comparison and, as a result, self-perception, may be moderated by individual differences in happiness because happier people process social information differently than unhappier people. In a survey among 231 emerging adults (age 18-25) Facebook use was related to a greater degree of negative social comparison, which was in turn related negatively to self-perceived social competence and physical attractiveness. The indirect relationship between Facebook use and self-perception through negative social comparison was attenuated among happier individuals, as the relationship between Facebook use and negative social comparison was weaker among happier individuals. The current study thus suggests a poor-get-poorer effect of SNS use on well-being through social comparison.

Authors

• Dian Afina de Vries, Amsterdam School of Communication Research

• Rinaldo Kuehne, U of Amsterdam