Augmentation and discounting in affective reactions to upward and downward social comparisons

Two studies were conducted to investigate how the related attributes of a comparison target influence affective reactions to both upward and downward social comparisons. Participants received false feedback on an intelligence test and then were given information about an ostensible other's performance who had performed either better or worse than the participant. The age of the comparison other was manipulated such that she was younger, the same age, or older than the participant. Consistent with the related attributes perspective, a younger comparison other led to relatively low levels of positive affect regardless of feedback condition; however, the results for the older comparison others were less clear. Differential reactions to same age and older comparisons were limited to failure conditions.