Popular wisdom suggests that we are ill-advised to compare ourselves to others, as such comparisons can only lead to envy and dissatisfaction with our own lot; we should instead consider only our own merits and evaluate ourselves by looking at how far we have come, or how close we are to our goals. In practice, however, individuals make sense of themselves and their close others in large part through comparison processes. We cannot help but notice that the person on the subway next to us is better dressed, that our colleague posting on Twitter is having a more successful year, or that our friend on Instagram is having a more exciting summer vacation than our own. My research examines how such comparisons affect our perceptions of ourselves and others, our motivation to achieve our goals, and the quality and success of our close relationships with romantic partners, family members, and friends.
The Impact of Role Models on the Self
My early work explored the ways in which successful and unsuccessful others can function as role models; individuals will be motivated to try to become more like, or avoid becoming like, the better- or worse-off other (e.g., Lockwood & Kunda, 1997; Lockwood & Kunda, 1999; Lockwood, Jordan, & Kunda, 2002; Lockwood, 2002; Lockwood, Sadler, Fyman, & Tuck, 2004; Lockwood, Wong, McShane, & Dolderman, 2005; Lockwood, Marshall, & Sadler, 2005; Lockwood, Chasteen, & Wong, 2005; Lockwood, 2006; Lockwood, Shaughnessy, Fortune, & Tong, 2012). In ongoing work, I am examining the importance of same-gender role models for women in male-dominated fields, including STEM and sports (e.g., Lockwood, 2006; Midgley, DeBues-Stafford, Lockwood, & Thai, 2021; Midgley, Lockwood, & Hu, 2023).
Social Comparisons in the Context of Relationships
Much of my research focuses on social comparisons in the context of close relationships, including romantic, parent-child, and sibling relationships. I have examined how individuals compare themselves to their close others (e.g., Lockwood, Dolderman, Sadler, & Gerchak, 2004; Pinkus, Lockwood, Schimmack, & Fournier, 2008; Pinkus & Lockwood, 2007; Pinkus, Lockwood, Marshall, & Yoon, 2012; Thai, Lockwood, Pinkus, & Chen, 2015; Midgley, Lockwood, Balasubramaniam, Daniel, & Hu, 2023), compare their close others to other people (e.g., Thai & Lockwood, 2015; Thai, Lockwood, Zhu, Li, & He, 2019; Thai & Lockwood, 2024), and compare their romantic and family relationship to other relationships (e.g., Thai, Lockwood, & Boksh, 2020; Thai, Lockwood, & Page-Gould, 2022). I have explored how these comparisons can affect perceptions of the self and close others, and satisfaction with relationships.
Social Media Comparisons
I am currently examining the impact of social comparisons in online contexts. For example, I have found that individuals make more frequent and extreme “upward” comparisons to superior others when using social media (Midgley, Thai, Lockwood, Kovacheff, & Page-Gould, 2021). In the context of the pandemic, however, the negative impact of these comparisons was attenuated when individuals used social media to connect with other people (Midgley, Lockwood, & Thai, 2022). We are now exploring the reasons why social media posts elicit such extreme and negative comparison responses.
