{"id":59653,"date":"2022-02-01T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=59653"},"modified":"2022-02-14T11:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T15:17:13","slug":"social-comparison-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-comparison-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Social Comparison Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-social-comparison\/\">social comparison<\/a> bias? Why do we constantly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/comparing-ourselves-to-others\/\">compare ourselves to others<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social comparison bias is the feeling of competitiveness and dislike towards someone who is perceived to be better than you. According to Rolf Dobelli, the author of <em>The Art of Thinking Clearly<\/em>, social comparison bias forms from group membership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about social comparison bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-social-comparison-bias\"><strong>Social Comparison Bias<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Social comparison bias is the tendency to have feelings of dislike and competitiveness with people who are in some way perceived better than you. This involves refusing to help someone out of fear that they\u2019ll take your spot in the group. This is a defense mechanism:<strong> <\/strong>You don\u2019t want to lose your position in the group, so you won\u2019t help others even if doing so would help the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Social comparison bias is especially prevalent in the business world, Dobelli says. <strong>People hire below their own skill level so they don\u2019t feel threatened.<\/strong> By hiring less qualified people, however, you ensure your business won\u2019t excel: It\u2019ll be limited by your abilities and the lesser abilities of your employees. Instead, improve your company by hiring the best, even if they\u2019re better than you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: A barrier to hiring the best people might be worry about <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2015\/08\/how-to-manage-people-who-are-smarter-than-you\">how to manage people who are smarter than you.<\/a> In this situation, focus on what you bring to the team and how to create an environment where your employees can best use their expertise. In addition, acknowledge the areas in which you fall short and learn from your more experienced employees.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-upward-and-downward-social-comparison\"><strong>Upward and Downward Social Comparison<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While Dobelli defines social comparison bias as refusing to help others out of fear of being outclassed, <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/the-post-grad-survival-guide\/how-social-comparison-bias-is-affecting-us-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-d9984cb5e43a\">other sources define it more generally<\/a> as a sense of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/what-is-the-social-comparison-process-2795872\">competitiveness and dislike stemming from comparison<\/a>. They break social comparison into two categories: upward and downward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upward social comparison means comparing yourself to those who are better than you. This can either motivate you to improve or lower your self-esteem. Meanwhile, downward social comparison means comparing yourself to those who are somehow worse than you. This either boosts your self-esteem or leads to the problems Dobelli explores above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how can you get the benefits of healthy competition without damaging your self-esteem or ruining your company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Be humble.<\/strong> It\u2019s difficult to admit that someone else is better than you, but doing so helps you in the long run.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Approach upward social comparison with <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indiebusinessnetwork.com\/social-comparison-bias-sabotaging-small-business\/\"><strong>curiosity rather than jealousy<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> Look at how others became successful and how you can use that knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/wanda-thibodeaux\/why-you-should-hire-people-who-are-better-than-you-every-time.html\"><strong>Seek out your betters<\/strong><\/a><strong>, rather than running from them, so you can learn from them.<\/strong> This gives you an advantage over your competition and helps you excel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is social comparison bias? Why do we constantly compare ourselves to others? Social comparison bias is the feeling of competitiveness and dislike towards someone who is perceived to be better than you. According to Rolf Dobelli, the author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, social comparison bias forms from group membership. Keep reading to learn about social comparison bias.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[576],"class_list":["post-59653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-the-art-of-thinking-clearly","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Understanding Social Comparison Bias - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Social comparison bias is a sense of competitiveness and dislike stemming from comparing yourself to members of your in-group. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-comparison-bias\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding Social Comparison Bias\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social comparison bias is a sense of competitiveness and dislike stemming from comparing yourself to members of your in-group. 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