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This dissertation examines to what extent social comparison is emphasized in performance evaluations of work organizations, how employees react to it, and whether there is an alternative to it. Operationalizing social comparison as an evaluation process that compares an employee’s performance to their coworkers’ performance, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that social comparison is emphasized to a stronger extent in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. Studies 3 and 4 find that employees in collectivistic cultures perceive higher procedural fairness when they receive social comparison evaluations as compared to employees in individualistic cultures. The mediation analyses from Studies 2 and 4 indicate that these findings are explained by the perceived descriptive and injunctive norms of social comparisons within collectivistic versus individualistic cultures, which shape people’s general attitudes toward using social comparison in evaluation settings. In collectivistic cultures that put strong emphasis on people’s social context, social comparison is considered to be a necessary component of performance evaluations. In contrast, in individualistic cultures where people focus on the specific characteristics of each person, social comparison is believed to be more or less irrelevant. Given the aversive effect of social comparison in individualistic cultures, the second chapter of this dissertation investigates whether there is a proper alternative to social comparison in the context of performance evaluations. It finds that temporal comparison—which compares an employee’s performance to his or her own past performance—can be such an alternative. Temporal comparison secures employees’ perceptions of fairness by providing the beliefs that their evaluators are focusing on them and their specific characteristics. These findings imply that employees in individualistic cultures want their independent identities to be acknowledged at work, and providing temporal comparison evaluations is one way to fulfill such needs.

Weight stigma is associated with negative health outcomes across the BMI continuum. However, few studies have examined weight discrimination targeting people with low body weights. This investigation explored the presence of anti-thin bias, defined as the belief that people with low BMIs have undesirable personality characteristics. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of six vignettes about women that differed by race (White and Black) and weight status (slightly underweight, normal weight, and slightly overweight). Negative personality characteristics were more likely to be ascribed to both underweight and overweight women, compared with normal weight women. Furthermore, participants were significantly more likely to attribute underweight women’s body weight to biological factors. Results indicate that underweight women might be more stigmatized for their body weight than normal weight women. Weight bias literature should continue to research the impact of weight discrimination for individuals across the BMI spectrum.

Childhood cancer has obvious impacts on the children themselves, but also has impacts on their families and siblings. While studies have been conducted on the impacts of cancer on children and their parents, there has been limited consideration of the impacts of cancer on healthy siblings. Some studies have suggested that siblings of children with cancer are the most emotionally disregarded and distressed of all family members as a result of their sibling having cancer. Exposure to stress has a negative impact on the immune system and places siblings at risk for health problems. Thus, finding mechanisms to ameliorate stress are critical. Early intervention and treatment may serve as protective factors against risky behavior and lead to more normative child development and well-being. One method of improving the psychosocial adjustment of siblings of children with cancer has been through interventions such as camp experiences that include opportunities for campers to experience social support. There is a need to better understand the efficacy of intervention programs designed to reduce stress across a variety of settings. The focus of this study was if campers experience social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental) at a three and one-half day residential camp, and the elements of camp campers’ identified as leading to social support. Participant observations of camp and semi-structured interviews with selected campers were used to help gain insights concerning the impact of the camp experience on siblings of children with cancer. Coding of responses was undertaken, which led to the identification of themes and subthemes. Findings provided a narrative description of how campers perceived social support. In addition, social comparison was identified as a critical mechanism for meeting camper’s biological, physiological and behavioral needs. Overarching perceptions of campers were that people at camp were nice and staff was instrumental in facilitating universality and a cycle of reciprocity. Implications of this study suggest intentionally designed camps have the ability to impact a broad range of attitudes and behaviors. The study also supports theory of how structures and processes of social relationships work in relation to good health; and can be applied to a camp setting.

Social comparison theory offers a useful conceptual framework to understand how mainstream American sociocultural values of appearance may shape the development of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Some experimental research demonstrates that women report significantly greater increases in negative affect and body image disturbance and decreases in self-esteem after viewing thin models than after viewing inanimate objects, normal-weight models, and overweight women. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether the effects of viewing thin models are influenced by the ethnicity of the observer and/or the ethnic and racial similarity of the model to the observer. In addition, the study tested the extent to which social comparison tendency, trait appearance evaluation, ethnic identity, and racial identity may moderate these effects. In study 1, women rated the race, attractiveness, and thinness of a group of ethnically diverse models. Study 2 assessed affect, self-esteem, and body image in Euro-American (n = 105), African-American (n = 91), and Latina (n = 111) women before and after viewing ethnically self-similar models, self-different models, or control images. Results indicated that ethnic similarity between model and participants influenced affect such that increased social comparison tendency in Latina participants predicted increased negative affect after viewing Latina models. Additionally, the type of media images viewed and proposed moderators influenced affect and body image. As predicted, positive appearance evaluation was more strongly associated with positive feelings about one’s weight after viewing models and, in African-American and Latina women, increased idealization of Whiteness was associated with decreased positive feelings regarding one’s weight after viewing White models. Unexpectedly, increased social comparison tendency was associated with increased positive affect after viewing African-American models whereas increased social comparison tendency was associated with less positive affect after viewing Latina models. Finally, independent of media exposure, African-American women reported higher appearance-based self-esteem and body image than Euro-American and Latina women and increased social comparison tendency, decreased positive appearance evaluation, decreased ethnic identity, and increased racial identity idealizing Whiteness were each associated with undesirable levels of self-esteem and body image. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.

Although there have been only a few etiological studies that have examined the development and maintenance of body image in males, research fairly consistently reports that exposure and presumed comparison to images of ideal male bodies increases body dissatisfaction. Social comparison provides individuals with a mechanism by which to evaluate their body appearance to those around them. When individuals compare their bodies to those of others, they are attempting to gauge their standing or status relative to those around them, the results of which have inherent status implications. There is increasing empirical evidence that suggests perceived increases in status result in increased testosterone levels, whereas testosterone decreases when status is perceived as having been diminished. Thus, the core of the present study: can the process of comparing the appearance of one’s body to that of others affect the testosterone levels, body satisfaction, and mood of males? To examine the above research questions, a two-part study was designed. A pilot study was conducted with 117 male undergraduates primarily to examine the psychometrics of measures to be used in the main study. The measures appeared psychometrically sound and were thus used in the main study. In the main study, 129 male undergraduates were exposed to photographs of one of three male body types (i.e., lean/muscular, skinny, average) to determine whether or not exposure to the different body types differentially affected participants’ testosterone levels, body satisfaction, and mood. Results indicate that testosterone levels decreased over the course of the experiment in each of the three groups; however, the body type to which participants were exposed did not differentially affect participants’ testosterone levels. Body dissatisfaction was greater among participants who viewed lean/muscular bodies than those who viewed average bodies. Lastly, mood was not differentially affected by viewing different types of male bodies. Implications and possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Childhood cancer has obvious impacts on the children themselves, but also has impacts on their families and siblings. While studies have been conducted on the impacts of cancer on children and their parents, there has been limited consideration of the impacts of cancer on healthy siblings. Some studies have suggested that siblings of children with cancer are the most emotionally disregarded and distressed of all family members as a result of their sibling having cancer. Exposure to stress has a negative impact on the immune system and places siblings at risk for health problems. Thus, finding mechanisms to ameliorate stress are critical. Early intervention and treatment may serve as protective factors against risky behavior and lead to more normative child development and well-being. One method of improving the psychosocial adjustment of siblings of children with cancer has been through interventions such as camp experiences that include opportunities for campers to experience social support. There is a need to better understand the efficacy of intervention programs designed to reduce stress across a variety of settings. The focus of this study was if campers experience social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental) at a three and one-half day residential camp, and the elements of camp campers' identified as leading to social support. Participant observations of camp and semi-structured interviews with selected campers were used to help gain insights concerning the impact of the camp experience on siblings of children with cancer. Coding of responses was undertaken, which led to the identification of themes and subthemes. Findings provided a narrative description of how campers perceived social support. In addition, social comparison was identified as a critical mechanism for meeting camper's biological, physiological and behavioral needs. Overarching perceptions of campers were that people at camp were nice and staff was instrumental in facilitating universality and a cycle of reciprocity. Implications of this study suggest intentionally designed camps have the ability to impact a broad range of attitudes and behaviors. The study also supports theory of how structures and processes of social relationships work in relation to good health; and can be applied to a camp setting.

Social networking and social media technologies have greatly changed the way information is created and transmitted. Social media has made content contribution an efficient approach for individual brand building. With abundant user generated content and social networks, content consumers are constantly subject to social influence. Such social influence can be further utilized to encourage pro-social behavior. Chapter 1 examines the incentives for content contribution in social media. We propose that exposure and reputation are the major incentives for contributors. Besides, as more and more social media websites offer advertising-revenue sharing with some of their contributors, shared revenue provides an extra incentive for contributors who have joined revenue-sharing programs. We develop a dynamic structural model to identify a contributor's underlying utility function from observed contribution behavior. We recognize the dynamic nature of the content-contribution decision--that contributors are forward-looking, anticipating how their decisions impact future rewards. Using data collected from YouTube, we show that content contribution is driven by a contributor's desire for exposure, revenue sharing, and reputation and that the contributor makes decisions dynamically. Chapter 2 examines how social influence impact individuals' content consumption decisions in social network. Specifically, we consider social learning and network effects as two important mechanisms of social influence, in the context of YouTube. Rather than combining both social learning and network effects under the umbrella of social contagion or peer influence, we develop a theoretical model and empirically identify social learning and network effects separately. Using a unique data set from YouTube, we find that both mechanisms have statistically and economically significant effects on video views, and which mechanism dominates depends on the specific video type. Chapter 3 studies incentive mechanism to improve users' pro-social behavior based on social comparison. In particular, we aim to motivate organizations to improve Internet security. We propose an approach to increase the incentives for addressing security problems through reputation concern and social comparison. Specifically, we process existing security vulnerability data, derive explicit relative security performance information, and disclose the information as feedback to organizations and the public. To test our approach, we conducted a field quasi-experiment for outgoing spam for 1,718 autonomous systems in eight countries. We found that the treatment group subject to information disclosure reduced outgoing spam approximately by 16%. Our results suggest that social information and social comparison can be effectively leveraged to encourage desirable behavior. / text

本研究旨在了解台北地區高中職學生社會比較行為之現況，並探討影響社會比較行為之相關因素；其次，探討社會比較行為與創意態度及學習行為之關係。 本研究之樣本為台北地區公、私立高中、高職學校一至三年級學生，有效樣本共計565人（男生265人，女生300人）。所採用的研究工具包括「社會比較動機量表」、「社會比較內容量表」、「社會比較對象量表」、「知覺教師教與學導向量表」、「創意態度量表」、「成就目標量表」、「學生學習偏好量表」及「激勵學習策略量表」等八種量表。研究中所使用的統計方法包括：皮爾森積差相關、卡方考驗、區別分析、單因子變異數分析及典型相關。 本研究之研究結果如下： 一、　高中職學生社會比較行為現況方面： 台北地區高中職學生，其較常使用自我評鑑與學習、自我改進及結盟等比較動機，同時喜歡針對情緒智力相關事物與同學比較。在社會比較方式，高中職學生不分年籍、性別、學校類別，在各項能力的比較上皆傾向使用平行比較；在假想情境中的比較則是傾向使用向上比較。 二、　性別、教師的教學結構與社會比較之關係 （一）男、女高中職學生社會比較行為之差異 不同性別的高中職學生，男學生在部分的社會比較動機（包括：自我破壞、自我顯揚）及內容（包括：外表印象、成績表現）的使用意願上，都顯著比女學生來得高。在社會比較方式上，則沒有明顯的性別差異，除了在個性比較方面，女學生比男學生較多人選擇作向下比較。 （二）教師的教學結構與社會比較行為之關係 教師不同的教學結構與社會比較動機及內容皆呈顯著之正相關，在比較動機方面，當學生知覺教師採用學習導向的教學結構時，會增進其使用自我評鑑與學習及利他主義等比較動機，但是當其知覺到是表現導向的教學結構時，不但會減少上述兩種動機，同時會增加其使用自我破壞的比較動機；在比較內容方面，兩種教學結構是較無差異的，都與情緒智力及外表印象等比較內容間有正相關。在社會比較方式上，教師的教學結構並沒有辦法區別出不同比較方式的高中職學生。 三、　社會比較與創意態度及學習行為之關係 （一）創意態度與社會比較行為之關係 創意態度的三項因素皆與社會比較動機及內容同樣是呈顯著之正相關，本研究發現，越不喜歡使用自我評鑑與學習之比較動機，且較少針對情緒智力之相關事物與同學進行比較的高中職學生，其對新觀念的產生較容易抱持消極的態度，且對新觀念及團隊創意會較不重視。 （二）學習行為與社會比較行為之關係 1. 社會比較動機與學習行為之關係 社會比較動機與學習動機、方式及策略之各項因素間呈顯著之正相關，本研究發現，越喜歡使用自我破壞及自我顯揚之比較動機的高中職學生，是較少使用精熟學習動機、合作學習方式及尋求同儕協助的學習策略，這也顯示使用這兩種比較動機，對高中職學生的合作學習的行為有較負向的影響。 2. 社會比較內容與學習行為之關係 社會比較內容與學習動機、方式及策略之各項因素間呈顯著之正相關，本研究發現，喜歡針對外表印象之相關事物與同學進行比較之高中職學生，其較少使用精熟的學習動機，也較少使用合作與個人的學習方式。 3. 社會比較方式與學習行為之關係 本研究發現社會比較方式與學習行為之關係為：學習動機是想要獲得高分，且在學習遇到困難不會向同學尋求協助之高中職學生，越有可能使用向下比較。 四、　高中職學生的性別、知覺教師的教學結構、創意態度及學習行為與社會比較動機、內容之間共可以抽出二組顯著之典型相關。 本研究依據上述之研究結果提出討論，並提出若干點建議供教育輔導工作及未來研究之參考。 / The first purpose of this study was to assess the degree of social comparison motives of senior high school students in Taipei. The second purpose was to investigate how students’ gender and their perceptions of the classroom goal structure related to social comparison motives. The third purpose was to study how social comparison motives influence personal achievement goals and motivated learning strategies for learning and learning preference. The Chinese versions of the Social Comparison Motives Scale (Helgeson & Mickelson, 1995), Attitude Toward Idea Generation Scale (Basadur & Hausdorf, 1996), Achievement Goal Measure (Elliot & Harackiewicwz, 1998), Learning Preference Scale for Students (Owens & Straton, 1980) and Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrrich, 1989) and two other scales constructed to measure the content and target of social comparison were administered to 565 senior high school students from 11 senior high schools in Taipei. The results supported most hypotheses. Senior high school students prefer to use self-evaluation, self-improvement and common bond as motives for social comparison. They also liked to compare their emotional and intellectual behavior with their classmates. There were some significant differences between males and females in overall social comparison motives and content. Compared with females, males had significantly higher scores on self-enhancement and self-destruction scales. Male students compared more than their female counterparts on physical attractiveness and academic competence. The more students perceived their classroom goal structure to be learning focused, the more they perceived their social comparison motives to be self-evaluation and self-improvement oriented. The study also found that students' self-evaluation and self-improvement motives and intellectual and emotional content for social comparison were positively and significantly related to learning goal orientation, attitude toward idea generation, and academic help-seeking strategy use and preference for cooperative learning. However, students’ self-enhancement and self-destruction motives were negatively and significantly related to learning goal orientation, academic help-seeking strategy use and preference for cooperative learning. The students who scored high on self-enhancement and self-destruction motives also preferred competitive, individual ways of learning and learning via Internet.