Frequent Social Comparisons and Destructive Emotions and Behaviors: The Dark Side of Social Comparisons

Social comparisons may seem to serve several positive functions, including self-enhancement. Frequent social comparisons, however, have a dark side. Two studies examined the relationship between frequent social comparisons and destructive emotions and behaviors. In Study 1, people who said they made frequent social comparisons were more likely to experience envy, guilt, regret, and defensiveness, and to lie, blame others, and to have unmet cravings. In Study 2, police officers who said they made frequent social comparisons were more likely to show ingroup bias and to be less satisfied with their jobs. The dark side of frequent social comparisons was not associated with self-esteem. Results are discussed in terms of the role of individual differences in social comparison processes.     

International comparison of Cloninger’s temperament dimensions

Cloninger’s Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) and Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) have been developed to measure the following temperament dimensions: novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD) and persistence (P). We used our previous Finnish normative study of the TPQ and TCI (Miettunen et al., 2004) to estimate correction coefficients to convert TPQ scales to comparable TCI scales. Our aim was to compare these corrected temperament dimension scores across 20 countries adjusting for study sample differences in age and gender. In all, some variations were found in these temperament scores between countries. Differences were especially apparent between the Asian and the Western countries. By far the lowest mean score of the RD was in Japan (11.2 vs. 15.4 for other countries; effect size Cohen’s d = −5.74; z-test p < 0.001) and the highest mean score in P was in USA (5.5 vs. 4.4; d = 4.24, p = 0.001). Some of the findings could be explained by sample differences (e.g. age and education); while some may reflect real differences in the ways which personality is related to cultural factors, such as individualism/collectivism. These differences should be considered when interpreting studies with data on TPQ/TCI from different countries.     

The influence of unawareness set and order effects in consumer regret

Prior research on regret has assumed a consideration set of only two-alternatives. The authors have relaxed that assumption and have developed hypotheses to examine the influence of the unawareness set and order effects in the measurement of consumer regret in a post-purchase evaluation. The results demonstrated that the brands consumers were previously unaware of, do indeed influence consumer regret, especially in a post-purchase upward comparison situation (comparing to superior unknown brands); this was not the case in a post-purchase downward comparison situation (comparing to inferior unknown brands). Order effects were also found to moderate consumer regret.     

Effect of Political Positioning on Explanations of Delinquency: An Experimental Study of Social Differentiation and Representation

Why and under what conditions do subjects from diverse political orientations tend to offer different explanations of a social problem? Past studies have found evidence of a connection between political orientations and explanations of delinquency, for example. However, observing such differences among subjects with diverse political orientations is not enough to prove the existence of an organic link between social differentiation and the representations of delinquency. The aim of this paper is to provide an experimental proof of such a link. The results show that: (a) right‐wing and left‐wing subjects tend to offer different types of explanations of delinquency, but they refer to several common organizing principles; (b) divergence increases when social comparison between groups is activated; (c) differences are bigger if this comparison induces a discrimination; (d) the bigger the differences the more likely are the groups to resort to their ideological principles. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical, methodological, deontological, and practical implications.     

Idiosyncratic matching and choice: When less is more

In three studies, reliance on “goodness-of-fit” criteria exerted an influence on assessments of pay-TV packages that challenged normative standards relating to the principle of dominance. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the addition of one or more non-favored channels to a package of favored ones resulted in lower consumer interest, and the subtraction of one or more non-favored channels from a mixed package resulted in greater consumer interest, even when the relevant offering price remained unchanged. Study 3 demonstrated the specific relevance of perceived idiosyncrasy to this phenomenon. Thus, participants responded more positively to a given price reduction for relinquishing a channel they did not like when they believed that their preference ordering was idiosyncratic rather than one shared by their peers. These findings, buttressed by additional data collection to rule out some alternative interpretations and permit within-subject as well as between-subject comparisons, extend the theoretical and practical implications of previous research on the non-normative use of personal “goodness-of-fit” criteria in evaluating the attractiveness of products and programs.     

父母物质主义与大学生网络强迫性购物:序列中介效应分析

本研究基于生命历程范式,探讨父母物质主义与大学生网络强迫性购物的关系,并在此基础上建构了一个序列中介效应模型,考察大学生物质主义和社会比较的中介作用。采用方便抽样法对武汉市一所综合性大学858名具有网络购物经验的学生进行问卷调查,结果显示：（1）父母物质主义、大学生物质主义、社会比较和网络强迫性购物两两显著正相关;（2）在控制了性别和家庭社会经济地位之后,父母物质主义对大学生网络强迫性购物具有显著正向预测作用;（3）大学生物质主义和社会比较在父母物质主义与大学生网络强迫性购物之间起中介作用。具体而言,父母物质主义通过两条路径影响大学生网络强迫性购物,一是大学生物质主义的单独中介作用;二是大学生物质主义和社会比较的序列中介作用。上述结果表明,父母物质主义对大学生网络强迫性购物具有一定影响,且这种影响是通过个体因素（物质主义）和同伴互动因素（社会比较）共同作用形成的。     

How Financial Constraints Influence Consumer Behavior: An Integrative Framework

Financial constraints are economic limitations on behavior. Given that millions of people experience chronic or episodic financial constraints, we sought to review research that provides insight into how they affect consumer behavior. We propose an integrative framework that draws insights from multiple literatures that have examined financial constraints from different perspectives. The framework distinguishes between four perspectives, which are rooted in literatures on resource scarcity, choice restriction, social comparison, and environmental uncertainty and highlights different temporal stages of responding to financial constraints, distinguishing between reacting, coping, and adapting. Beyond the obvious negative effects of financial constraints, our framework emphasizes consumer resilience, highlighting that consumers often successfully cope with and devise adaptive strategies to deal with financial constraints. By broadening the behavioral and temporal scope of financial constraints considered within consumer psychology, this framework helps us to understand the often strong and sometimes counterintuitive effects of financial constraints on consumer behavior.     

Use of absolute and comparative performance feedback in absolute and comparative judgments and decisions

Which matters more—beliefs about absolute ability or ability relative to others? This study set out to compare the effects of such beliefs on satisfaction with performance, self-evaluations, and bets on future performance. In Experiment 1, undergraduate participants were told they had answered 20% correct, 80% correct, or were not given their scores on a practice test. Orthogonal to this manipulation, participants learned that their performance placed them in the 23rd percentile or 77th percentile, or they did not receive comparative feedback. Participants were then given a chance to place bets on two games—one in which they needed to get more than 50% right to double their money (absolute bet), and one in which they needed to beat more than 50% of other test-takers (comparative bet). Absolute feedback influenced comparative betting, particularly when no comparative feedback was available. Comparative feedback exerted weaker and inconsistent effects on absolute bets. Absolute feedback also had stronger (and more consistent) effects on satisfaction with performance and state self-esteem. Experiment 2 replicated these effects in a different university sample, and demonstrated that the effects emerge even when bets are placed after participants rate their satisfaction with their performance (although these ratings do not mediate the effect of feedback on bets). These findings suggest that information about one’s absolute standing on a dimension may be more influential than information about comparative standing, partially supporting a key tenet of Festinger’s [Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.] theory of social comparison.     

Rough Sets and 3-Valued Logics

In the paper we explore the idea of describing Pawlak’s rough sets using three-valued logic, whereby the value t corresponds to the positive region of a set, the value f — to the negative region, and the undefined value u — to the border of the set. Due to the properties of the above regions in rough set theory, the semantics of the logic is described using a non-deterministic matrix (Nmatrix). With the strong semantics, where only the value t is treated as designated, the above logic is a “common denominator” for Kleene and Łukasiewicz 3-valued logics, which represent its two different “determinizations”. In turn, the weak semantics—where both t and u are treated as designated—represents such a “common denominator” for two major 3-valued paraconsistent logics. We give sound and complete, cut-free sequent calculi for both versions of the logic generated by the rough set Nmatrix. Then we derive from these calculi sequent calculi with the same properties for the various “determinizations” of those two versions of the logic (including Łukasiewicz 3-valued logic). Finally, we show how to embed the four above-mentioned determinizations in extensions of the basic rough set logics obtained by adding to those logics a special two-valued “definedness” or “crispness” operator.     

美托洛尔常规治疗与基因导向治疗高血压病的比较

比较基因导向美托洛尔个体化治疗与常规治疗高血压病的临床疗效、安全性和经济性。从300例1或2级原发性高血压患者中随机抽取165例进入常规治疗组（A组,n＝165）,其余135例患者进行CYP2D6基因、β1肾上腺素能受体（β1-AR）基因多态性检测,将β1-AR基因389位携带了Arg等位基因的原发性高血压患者133例分入基因导向治疗组（B组,n＝133）;基因导向治疗组患者按照CYP2D6基因分型分为弱代谢组（PMB,n=43）、中等代谢组（IMB,n=54）和强代谢组（EMB,n=36）。常规治疗组给予美托洛尔100mg/日,基因导向治疗组中PMB组、IMB组、EMB组分别给予美托洛尔25 mg/d、100mg/d、200mg/d,均分2次口服降压治疗,共随访8周,观察血压和不良反应等指标。应用成本-效果分析方法对基因导向型个体化治疗方案进行药物经济学评估。结果为基因导向治疗组降压总有效率明显高于常规治疗组（65.08% vs 47.4%, P＜0.05）;基因导向治疗组的不良反应发生率明显低于常规治疗组（P＜0.05）。成本效果分析,基因导向治疗组的平均成本效果比稍高于常规治疗组（350.05 vs 249.96）,与常规治疗组相比增量成本效果比（ICERs）为618.38。依据基因导向的前瞻性美托洛尔个体化降压治疗较传统给药模式更为安全、有效,但短期治疗难以体现其更优的经济学价值。