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Handbook of Social Comparison pp 487–499Cite as

Toward an Enlightenment in Social Comparison Theory

Moving beyond Classic and Renaissance Approaches

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Part of the book series: The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology ((SSSC))

Abstract

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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, NL-9712 TS, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Bram P. Buunk

  2. Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 50011-3180, USA

    Frederick X. Gibbons

Authors
  1. Bram P. Buunk
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  2. Frederick X. Gibbons
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Jerry Suls

  2. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Ladd Wheeler

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Buunk, B.P., Gibbons, F.X. (2000). Toward an Enlightenment in Social Comparison Theory. In: Suls, J., Wheeler, L. (eds) Handbook of Social Comparison. The Springer Series in Social Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4237-7_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6903-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4237-7

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