Gendered influence of downward social comparisons on current and possible selves

Abstract

Because men and women differ with regard to independent and interdependent self-construals, we propose that downward comparisons are more likely to lower women's achievement-related self-evaluations compared to men's. We also hypothesize that gendered self-schemas provide men with advantages in the processing of self-related dispositional information and women with advantages in the processing of self-related social-contextual information. To the extent that a downward social comparison presents a potential threat to the self, men and women differ in how effectively they can fend off the implications of different types of comparisons. Results from three experiments (total N = 393) support these hypotheses, suggesting that gendered responses to downward comparison are at least in part driven by a culturally normative focus on dispositional information prevalent in the West.