Emotion in Social Comparison and Reflection Processes

Social comparison theory has come a long way since its original formulation (Festinger, 1954). The original statement of the theory treated uncertainty as an independent variable and social information seeking as a dependent variable. It suggested that people have a need to evaluate their opinions and abilities and that they do this by comparing themselves to others, preferably similar others. Shortly afterwards, we learned that people also have a need to evaluate their emotions (Schachter, 1959; Taylor, Buunk, & Aspinwall, 1990). Over the years we have learned more about the meaning of similar others (e.g., Goethals & Darley, 1977; Miller, Turnbull, & McFarland, 1988; Wood, 1989) and that being with others or…