Bram P. Buunk’s research while affiliated with University of Groningen and other places

A longitudinal study was conducted among 93 nurses to determine the role of comparing oneÕs performance with that of oneÕs colleagues in the increase versus decrease of perceived relative deprivation at work over a period of one year. Relative deprivation at T2 had in-creased particularly among those high in social comparison orientation (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) who at T1 (1) more frequently engaged in upward comparisons; (2) more frequently de-rived positive as well as negative feelings from such comparisons; and (3) more frequently de-rived negative feelings from downward comparison. Moreover, engaging in downward comparison also led to an increase in perceived relative deprivation at T2. This study is one of the few to find evidence for longitudinal effects of social comparison activity, and the first to find that such effects occur only for those high in social comparison orientation. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Social comparison—how we use others to make sense of ourselves and the world—is a focal human concern. Indeed, scholars have long recognized the importance of social comparison for human adaptation and survival. As Suls and Wheeler (Chapter 1, this volume) note, theorizing and research on social comparison can be traced to some of the classical contributions to Western philosophy and to pivotal work in social psychology and sociology, including work on the self, adaptation level, reference groups, and social influence. Nevertheless, it was not until Festinger’s (1954) classic paper that the term social comparison was proposed. The present volume clearly testifies that in the 45 years of its existence, social comparison theory has undergone numerous transitions and reformulations, and in the process, has developed from being a focused theoretical statement on the use of others for self-evaluation into a very complex area of research encompassing many different paradigms, approaches, and applications (e.g., Suls & Wills, 1991; Buunk & Gibbons, 1997). In the present chapter, we will discuss some trends that we see in the evolution of the theory in the past decades as apparent from the chapters in the present volume. We also will discuss some developments that are currently occurring and suggest an “enlightenment” that might help illuminate some of the unresolved issues and inconsistent findings manifest in current theorizing and research in the area.

Based on an evolutionary analysis of reciprocal altruism, it is argued that humans have developed innate mechanisms to expect reciprocity in interpersonal relationships and that a lack of reciprocity is accompanied by negative affect. The authors present an overview of their own research programme documenting the importance of reciprocity in a wide variety of relationships, including marital relationships, lesbian relationships, extradyadic sexual relationships, friendships, professional and informal helping relationships, relationships with colleagues and supervisors at work, and relationships with the organization in which one is employed. In view of this broad range of relationships that seem to be governed by similar principles of reciprocity, it seems that a basic psychological mechanism is at work, and we suggest that this is rooted in evolution.

A prospective study of 94 Dutch adults who have casual sexual partners examined whether two important aspects of safe sex, namely bringing up condom use (BCU) and actual condom use (ACU) are intentional or habitual. For each of these aspects, a model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB: Ajzen, 1991) was pitted against a similar model that was extended with a path from past to later BCU and ACU, respectively. The results suggest that bringing up the issue of condom use was equally predicted by intentions and past BCU. However, among people with casual partners, using condoms - and more importantly not using condoms - was especially predicted by past ACU, suggesting a strong habitual component. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for safe sex education and the use of theories in safe sex promotion campaigns.

Uncertainty, Distress, and Social ComparisonThe Affective and Evaluative Consequences of Social ComparisonThe Illusion of SuperiorityCognitive Downward Comparisons as a Way of Reducing Relationship DistressConclusion

Little is known about the motivation of ex-smokers to stay abstinent. In the present study we argue that ex-smokers compare their present to their past when they still smoked to conclude whether they make good progress towards a satisfactory state of continued abstinence. These temporal comparisons are thought to be central in the motivation to stay abstinent in ex-smokers. The power of temporal comparisons to predict relapse was tested in two related samples of ex-smokers (N=152 and N=197), together with two other relevant psychological factors; positive outcome expectations of smoking and self-efficacy expectations. In the first sample of ex-smokers, only temporal comparisons predicted relapse after 2 months. In the second sample of ex-smokers, temporal comparisons mediated the relation between perceived positive outcomes of smoking and relapse after 6 months. In addition, in predicting relapse after 6 months, temporal comparisons interacted with self-efficacy. The present study suggests that temporal comparisons comprise the cognitive aspect of the motivation of ex-smokers to stay abstinent. This conceptualization of the motivation in ex-smokers can be used in practice to prevent relapse.

This study relates thoughts derived from 4 types of social comparison to trust and individual learning. Our study (N = 362 students) showed that upward identification (i.e., believing one is just as good as a better performing teammate) was positively related to trust and individual learning. Upward contrast (i.e., believing one is worse than a better performing group member) was negatively related to learning, as were downward-identifying thoughts (i.e., believing one will perform as badly as a poorly performing teammate). Downward contrast (i.e., thinking one can do much better than the poor performer) was negatively related to trust. We concluded that social comparison-based thoughts are important to consider when designing teamwork because of their constructive and destructive consequences.