ÜBER DIESE EPISODE
One of the main problems with platforms like Instagram and TikTok has a technical name and decades of research behind it: upward social comparison.
In this audio essay:
- The technical name behind a familiar social media problem, and the decades of research behind it.
- What Leon Festinger described in 1954 about how we evaluate ourselves.
- What a 2023 meta-analysis keeps finding about exposure to upward comparison content.
- The parallel process Stuart Albert proposed in 1977, and what comparing backward tends to do.
- An intuition Marcus Aurelius had in Book IV of the Meditations.
- A small antidote: the ordinary.
References:
- A Theory of Social Comparison Processes — Leon Festinger (1954)
- 2023 meta-analysis on social media and upward comparison (Communication Research)
- Stuart Albert on temporal comparison (1977)
- Wilson and Ross on temporal self-appraisals (2000)
- Meditations, Book IV — Marcus Aurelius
Read my original article: https://jmnaranjo.substack.com/p/should-we-ever-compare-ourselves
Imperfectly: short essays on psychology, creativity, and the quieter questions of being human.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jmnaranjo.substack.com
