Measuring up against your peers: where you live matter? 

Social comparison is one of the most ubiquitous features of human social life and a fundamental aspect of human cognition. The fundamental human tendency to look to others for information about how to think, feel and behave has provided humans with the ability to thrive in a highly complex and interconnected modern social world.

A recent study in social psychology conducted at the University of Cologne and London Business School has for the first time shown that social comparison is linked to two fundamental features of human society: tightness, or the strength of social norms and the punishment for deviance from them, and collectivism, or the human tendency to define oneself in relation to others. Dr. Matthew Baldwin from the Social Cognition Center Cologne (SoCCCo) and Professor Dr. Thomas Mussweiler (London Business School) found out that people generally compare themselves more strongly to others in situations of social tightness, in which correct behavior is clearly defined (such as a job interview), or in collective, interdependent social situations (for example at a party). This is the case across individuals, situations and cultures. The results of their series of three representative surveys has now been published in the article, “The culture of social comparison,” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Source: Where you live might influence how you measure up against your peers