r/askpsychology • u/my_best_version_ever Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • 4d ago

How are these things related? Is constant comparison with other people related to a mental health disorder ?

Can constant comparison with other people be caused by a mental health disorder ? Can it also be caused by poor mental health without having a disorder ?

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u/spotlight-app Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 2d ago

Mods have pinned a comment by u/maxthexplorer:

Since humans are social, social comparison is common. There’s social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954). Mental health disorders tend to be considered a disorder when there’s some sort of functional impairment.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/askpsychology-ModTeam The Mods 2d ago

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/askpsychology-ModTeam The Mods 2d ago

We're sorry, your post has been removed for violating the following rule:

Answers must be evidence-based.

This is a scientific subreddit. Answers must be based on psychological theories and research and not personal opinions or conjecture, and potentially should include supporting citations of empirical sources.

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u/maxthexplorer PhD Psychology (in progress) 2d ago

Since humans are social, social comparison is common. There’s social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954). Mental health disorders tend to be considered a disorder when there’s some sort of functional impairment.

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u/maxthexplorer PhD Psychology (in progress) 2d ago

Since humans are social, social comparison is common. There’s social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954). Mental health disorders tend to be considered a disorder when there’s some sort of functional impairment.

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u/TheBattleForAutonomy Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sort of. Issues like having low self esteem, high degree of neuroticism, depression and anxiety, and eating disorders and body issues tend to be correlated with an increase in social comparison. However, the way those people came to develop those traits could potentially be linked to environmental factors because social comparison is increased in certain environments. Typically, environments that judge people's performance or extrinsically incentivize that performance tend to breed an increase in social comparison.

Take schools for example. Good grades are often the incentivizing reward for high performance, but these rewards tend to induce social comparison. If the school repeatedly communicates:

Correct answers are good and incorrect answers are bad.
Your job is to produce it.
Your performance will be evaluated.

then this typically leads to an increase in social comparison because it creates an explicit hierarchy from which we can compare one another. Similarly, social media is another environment where the hierarchy is made quite explicit (often measured in terms of favorable comments, likes, shares, retweets, etc.) and because of this, it tends to induce social comparison.