Abstract
People often compare themselves to others to gain a better understanding of the self in a process known as social comparison. The current study discusses how people engage in a social comparison process on Facebook, and how observing content from their Facebook friends may affect their emotions. A 2 (comparison direction) × 2 (relational closeness) × 2 (self-esteem) between-subjects experiment was conducted with 163 adult participants. The results revealed a significant 3-way interaction such that people with high self-esteem would be happier receiving positive information than negative information from their close friends, but the effect would be the opposite if the information was from a distant friend. There was no such difference for people with low self-esteem.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 619-640 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Human Communication Research |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2016 |
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Keywords
- Emotion
- Relational Closeness
- Self-Esteem
- Social Comparison
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Anthropology
- Linguistics and Language
Cite this
Do Our Facebook Friends Make Us Feel Worse? A Study of Social Comparison and Emotion. / Liu, Jiangmeng; Li, Cong; Carcioppolo, Nick; North, Michael.
In: Human Communication Research, Vol. 42, No. 4, 01.10.2016, p. 619-640.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Our Facebook Friends Make Us Feel Worse? A Study of Social Comparison and Emotion
AU - Liu, Jiangmeng
AU - Li, Cong
AU - Carcioppolo, Nick
AU - North, Michael
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - People often compare themselves to others to gain a better understanding of the self in a process known as social comparison. The current study discusses how people engage in a social comparison process on Facebook, and how observing content from their Facebook friends may affect their emotions. A 2 (comparison direction) × 2 (relational closeness) × 2 (self-esteem) between-subjects experiment was conducted with 163 adult participants. The results revealed a significant 3-way interaction such that people with high self-esteem would be happier receiving positive information than negative information from their close friends, but the effect would be the opposite if the information was from a distant friend. There was no such difference for people with low self-esteem.
AB - People often compare themselves to others to gain a better understanding of the self in a process known as social comparison. The current study discusses how people engage in a social comparison process on Facebook, and how observing content from their Facebook friends may affect their emotions. A 2 (comparison direction) × 2 (relational closeness) × 2 (self-esteem) between-subjects experiment was conducted with 163 adult participants. The results revealed a significant 3-way interaction such that people with high self-esteem would be happier receiving positive information than negative information from their close friends, but the effect would be the opposite if the information was from a distant friend. There was no such difference for people with low self-esteem.
KW - Emotion
KW - Facebook
KW - Relational Closeness
KW - Self-Esteem
KW - Social Comparison
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84987750872&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84987750872&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/hcre.12090
DO - 10.1111/hcre.12090
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84987750872
VL - 42
SP - 619
EP - 640
JO - Human Communication Research
JF - Human Communication Research
SN - 0360-3989
IS - 4
ER -