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The neuroscience of social comparison and competition

  • Special Issue/Uncertainty
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Abstract

The study of competition from a social comparison perspective offers valuable insights into the neuroscience of social judgment and decision making under uncertainty. When engaging in social comparison, individuals seek and assess information about similarities or differences between others and themselves, in large part to improve their self-evaluation. By providing information about one’s relative position, abilities, outcomes, and more, social comparisons can inform competitive judgments and decisions. People reasonably turn to social comparisons to reduce uncertainty before, during, and after competition. However, the extent to which they do so and the behavioral consequences of social comparisons often fail to match the potential benefits of improved self-evaluation. An examination of the developing neuroscience of social comparison and competition in light of the behavioral evidence reveals numerous questions that merit further investigation.

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  1. Notre Dame Law School, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Avishalom Tor

  2. Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Stephen M. Garcia

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Tor, A., Garcia, S.M. The neuroscience of social comparison and competition. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 23, 920–943 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-023-01107-2

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