Role of self-worth contingencies and self-esteem in selecting and evaluating social comparison information

This study explored the effects of contingencies for self-worth and self-esteem on people's tendency to utilize social information in a self-protecting manner. After filling out measures of self-esteem and self-worth contingencies, subjects were given failure feedback on a test and asked to select the test of an upward or downward comparison target to review and evaluate. Overall, individuals with high and low self-esteem failed to show differences in self-protecting social comparison activities as a function of self-worth contingencies. Analyses conducted, including only those subjects most dissatisfied with their test performance, revealed a marginal interaction between self-esteem and self-worth contingencies. Subjects with lower self-esteem and higher self-worth contingencies were least likely to choose downward comparison targets. In predicting ratings of upward targets, higher contingencies for self-worth tended to lead to higher ratings among individuals with high self-esteem, whereas among low self-esteem subjects, higher contingencies for self-worth tended to lead to lower ratings.