The Role of Self Motives - 2005

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DOI: 10.1177/0146167204271326 2005; 31; 232 Pers Soc Psychol Bull

Katherine White and Darrin R. Lehman Culture and Social Comparison Seeking: The Role of Self-Motives

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10.1177/0146167204271326PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINWhite, Lehman / CULTURE AND SOCIAL COMPARISON SEEKING

Culture and Social Comparison Seeking:The Role of Self-Motives

Katherine WhiteDarrin R. LehmanUniversity of British Columbia

Three studies examined the relation between cultural back-ground and social comparison seeking. Compared to EuropeanCanadians, Asian Canadians sought more social comparisons,particularly those that were upward (Study 1), more social com-parisons after failure (Study 2), and more social comparisonsafter failure when the opportunity for self-improvement wasmade salient (Study 3). Taken together, these data spotlightAsian Canadians interest in social comparisons that allowfor self-improvement.

Keywords: social comparison; culture; self-construal; self-improvement

Social comparison can involve comparing to othersdoing better (i.e., upward social comparison) or worse(i.e., downward social comparison) than the self. Thepresent research examines possible cultural differencesin the desire to seek social comparison information. Spe-cifically, we examine whether those from East Asianbackgrounds are more likely than those from Westernbackgrounds to seek social comparison information,particularly in ways that allow for self-improvement.

People often make social comparisons to serve theirunderlying motives. Although Festinger (1954) sug-gested that people frequently engage in social compari-son in the interest of self-evaluation, it has become in-creasingly clear that social comparison serves other goalsas well (e.g., Wood, 1989; Wood & Taylor, 1991). Thosewho are motivated by a desire for self-improvementoften prefer to make upward comparisons to others inways that can lead to feelings of inspiration (Brickman &Bulman, 1977; Buunk, Collins, Taylor, VanYperen, &Dakof, 1990; Lockwood & Kunda, 1997) and improvedperformance (Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, & Kuyper,1999; Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, & Genestoux, 2001;Seta, 1982). Those motivated by self-enhancement tend

to use social comparison in different ways, for example,by recruiting downward social comparisons (e.g.,Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & LaPrelle, 1985; Taylor, Wood,& Lichtman, 1983; Wills, 1981; Wood, Taylor, &Lichtman 1985), by avoiding threatening social compar-isons (e.g., Brickman & Bulman, 1977), or by seeking outcertain upward social comparisons (Collins, 1996). Forinstance, although individuals under threat (e.g., cancerpatients) can make downward social comparisons to feelbetter, they can also seek contact, information, and affili-ation with those who are better-off in the service of in-spiration and self-improvement (Taylor & Lobel, 1989).

Culture and Social Comparison Seeking

Cultural background may have important implica-tions for social comparison processes. In general, thosefrom Eastern and Western cultural contexts differ in theextent to which they construe the self as interconnectedwith or distinct from those around them (e.g., Markus &Kitayama, 1991; for discussion of ways of viewing the self,see Sedikides & Brewer, 2001). The Western self tendsto be independent, individualistic, autonomous, agen-tic, and separate, whereas the Eastern self tends to beinterdependent, collectivistic, ensembled, communal,

232

Authors Note: This research was supported by a Social Sciences andHumanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) doctoral fellowshipawarded to White and by SSHRC operating grants awarded to Lehman.We thank Bree Archibald and Sasha Buhovac for their assistance dur-ing various phases of this research and Ed Diener, Steve Heine, andLeaf Van Boven for their comments on an earlier version of this article.Please address correspondence to Katherine White, who is now atHaskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2500 UniversityDr. N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4; e-mail: [email protected].

PSPB, Vol. 31 No. 2, February 2005 232-242DOI: 10.1177/0146167204271326 2005 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.


and relational (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama,1999; Singelis, 1994; Triandis, 1989).1

In comparison to independent selves, those who aremore interdependent often are more concerned withcollective than personal goals (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis,1989), more likely to have an extraindividual (i.e., exter-nally oriented) than intraindividual (i.e., internally ori-ented) focus (Heine, 2001), and more concerned withand bounded by relationships, roles, and social duties(Heine, 2001). Those with highly developed independ-ent self-construals tend to be more focused on their ownthoughts, feelings, and goals. Those with highly devel-oped interdependent self-construals, in contrast, aregenerally more concerned with the thoughts, feelings,behaviors, and goals of others (Markus & Kitayama,1991), and consequently may be more likely to seeksocial comparison information. In support of this sug-gestion, Gibbons and Buunk (1999) found that interper-sonal orientation (i.e., the extent to which individualspay attention to and base their behavior on the ways oth-ers behave) was correlated with interest in social com-parison. We anticipated that those who are more inter-dependent2 (i.e., those from East Asian culturalbackgrounds and who are chronically more collectivis-tic) will be more likely to seek social comparison infor-mation than their less interdependent counterparts(i.e., those from Western cultural backgrounds and whoare chronically less collectivistic).

Although independence can at times prompt socialcomparison seeking to see the self as unique, different,or better than others, we hypothesized that interdepen-dence would predict social comparison seeking. This isbecause being interdependentthat is, fitting in withsocially prescribed roles, standards, and dutiesby defi-nition, requires comparison to others. Being indepen-dent, on the other hand, might involve some social mon-itoring, but to be separate and bounded from others onedoes not necessarily need to engage in social compari-son. Furthermore, the current studies involve socialcomparison situations in which self-improvement is par-ticularly salient (i.e., performance situations in whichupward rather than downward social comparisons mightbe deemed more relevant and appropriate). As we arguenext, Asian Canadians often are motivated by self-improvement, and this is another reason why we an-ticipated that in the present studies Asian Canadianswould seek more social comparisons than EuropeanCanadians.

Those from East Asian backgrounds are less likely toexhibit self-enhancement motives (Heine et al., 1999;Heine & Lehman, 1995, 1997; Kitayama, Markus,Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997) and are more likelyto be motivated by self-improvement than those fromWestern backgrounds (Heine et al., 2001; White &

Lehman, 2005). For example, Heine et al. (2001) foundthat European North Americans who received failurefeedback persisted less on a follow-up task than thosewho received success feedback. In contrast, Japanesewho received failure feedback persisted more on a follow-up task than those who received success feedback. Thefinding that those from East Asian backgrounds weremore persistent in the face of failure suggests that theyare particularly motivated by self-improvement.

It may seem counterintuitive that those who are moreinterdependent would be more motivated by self-improvement, especially if this goal is seen as a self-serving orientation. However, the literature suggests thatthose who are more interdependent are particularlyconcerned with shared standards and norms, and ratherthan trying to improve for self-promoting reasons, theirself-improvement motives reflect a desire to not fallbehind the group (see Heine et al., 2001, for discussion).Because those in more collectivistic contexts often aremotivated to live up to the consensually shared standardsof the ingroup, it is crucial for them to be able to adjustthemselves accordingly. This orientation leads to a selfthat is viewed as more uncertain (Campbell et al., 1996),adjustable (Morling, Kitayama, & Miyamoto, 2000;Weisz, Rothbaum, & Blackburn, 1984), and ultimatelyimprovable (Heine et al., 2001).

Research in Western contexts reveals that peopleoften engage in and respond to social comparison in amanner that reflects underlying self-enhancementmotives. For example, to see the self in a positive light,people seek out downward social comparisons (Wills,1981), avoid upward comparison information (Pyszczynskiet al., 1985), and rate themselves more positively afterpublic than private failure (Greenberg & Pyszczynski,1985). Whereas Westerners and independent selves areoften motivated to bolster self-esteem, and selectivelyseek social comparison information in ways that main-tain positive self-regard, research suggests that EastAsians and interdependent selves may engage in socialcomparison for different reasons. That is, they may bemotivated to (a) monitor the social environment, (b)evaluate the self in relation to the social context, (c) affil-iate with or feel a sense of connectedness with others,and (d) improve the self. Although it is clear that West-erners too engage in social comparison to serve informa-tional, affiliative, and self-improvement goals, ourhypothesis is that those from East Asian backgrounds aremore likely to do so, and consequently are more likely toseek social comparisons, particularly those that areupward and allow for self-improvement.

Although, to our knowledge, cultural differences insocial comparison seeking have not been documented,self-reported levels of collectivism have been shown to bepositively related to reports of engaging in academic-

White, Lehman / CULTURE AND SOCIAL COMPARISON SEEKING 233


related social comparisons, a stronger desire to makeupward comparisons, and a weaker desire to make down-ward comparisons (Chung & Mallery, 1999). The pres-ent studies build on this research by examining possiblecultural differences in social comparison seeking and byutilizing a behavioral measure in addition to self-reportsof social comparison seeking. Specifically, we examinedwhether Asian Canadians were more likely than Euro-pean Canadians to seek social comparisons, especiallythose that are upward (Study 1), and whether AsianCanadians continued to seek social comparisons afterexperiencing failure (Study 2). Finally, we investigatedwhether Asian Canadians were more likely to seekupward social comparisons after failure, particularlywhen the opportunity for self-improvement was madesalient (Study 3).

STUDY 1

In Study 1, we had participants complete a spatialreasoning test, informed them of their ranking, andgave them the opportunity to view other participantsscored tests (see Pyszczynski et al., 1985; Wheeler, 1966,for similar methodologies). Many previous studies usingsuch measures have forced participants to make socialcomparisons (see Wood, 1996, for commentary).Although we gave our participants the opportunity toview how other people performed, we also gave them theoption not to look. Participants also were able to makeboth upward and downward social comparisons if theyso wished. We anticipated that Asian Canadians wouldseek more social comparisons, and in particular moreupward social comparisons, than would EuropeanCanadians.

Method

Participants. Twenty-three European Canadians (22women, 1 man, M age = 21.4) and 28 Asian Canadians(23 women, 5 men, M age = 23.5) participated in thisstudy for course credit.3

Materials and procedure. Participants took part individ-ually in a laboratory study ostensibly about spatial rea-soning and personality. We chose spatial reasoning asour task because in pilot testing we found that studentsperceived this to be an important skill, and there were nogender or culture differences in ratings of perceivedability at this skill. In an effort to increase the perceivedimportance of the test, participants were told that spatialreasoning is an important intellectual skill that affects awide variety of work-related and everyday tasks and thatthis test reflects overall intelligence. They also wereinformed that tests of spatial reasoning often are admin-istered alone and used as an estimate of ones overallintelligence level because these tests are not sensitive to

the cultural biases that plague other intelligence tests.The test involved participants observing a sequence ofpatterns or shapes and then deciding, out of severalpossibilities, which object should come next in thesequence. Participants were given 5 min to complete thetest. They were informed that no one completes the testin the allotted time, the more difficult questions areweighted more heavily in scoring, and they should guessand move on to the next question if they are unsure of ananswer. This was done to ensure that participants trueperformance on the test was ambiguous. Upon comple-tion of the test, the experimenter told the participantthat it would take a few minutes to score it. Five minutesafter leaving the room ostensibly to score the test, theexperimenter returned with the participants score. Allparticipants received a score that was about average toensure they could make both upward and downwardsocial comparisons.

Participants then read the following:

Often students indicate that they would like to know thescores of students at other rankings. At this point in thestudy we will give you the opportunity to view some of thescores of other students who also completed the test.Below is a list of rankings of students who have com-pleted the spatial reasoning test with our researchers.From this list of rankings below you may check 0 to 7 rank-ings that you would like to view. You may choose less than 7 ifyou wish or you may decide that you are not interested in examin-ing this information at all.

Participants were told that if they selected rankings toview, they would see both the test and the test score ofeach ranking. Each participants own ranking was high-lighted and participants had the opportunity to checkoff up to 7 other rankings that they wanted to view. Therewere a total of 88 rankings to choose fromhalf of thesebeing above the participants own score and half beingbelow the participants score. After the participant madehis or her selection(s), the researcher left the roomostensibly to retrieve the tests of the other participants.We recorded the number of upward social comparisons,downward social comparisons, and total social compari-sons (i.e., the sum of both upward and downward com-parisons) as the main dependent measures.

To examine whether those from Asian Canadian andEuropean Canadian backgrounds found the test ap-proximately equally relevant and interpreted theirscores similarly, participants were asked one questionabout task importance (How important was it for you todo well on the spatial reasoning test?) and one questionregarding perceptions of their own performance (Comparedto other people in general, how would you rate youroverall performance on the spatial reasoning test?).

234 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN


In addition, a measure of interest in social comparison wascreated by forming an index of the following items:How interested were you in seeing how others per-formed on the test? and How much did you want tocompare your performance with the performance ofothers? (r = .70, p < .0001). The measures of task impor-tance, perceptions of performance, and interest in socialcomparison were all completed on 7-point Likert scales.Participants then completed a measure of self-construal(Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, & Gelfand, 1995; see alsoTriandis, 1996). This measure assesses both individual-ism ( = .78), or the degree to which the self is definedas independent and autonomous from collectives(Triandis, 1996, p. 409; e.g., Being a unique individual isimportant to me), and collectivism ( = .70), or thedegree to which the self is defined as an aspect of a col-lective (Triandis, 1996, p. 409; e.g., I usually sacrificemy self-interest for the benefit of my group). In addi-tion, participants completed measures of self-conceptclarity (Campbell et al., 1996; = .89) and self-esteem(Rosenberg, 1965; = .86). Uncertainty about the self(e.g., Festinger, 1954) and self-esteem (e.g., Wheeler &Miyake, 1992) tend to be related to social comparisonseeking, and thus we employed these measures ascovariates in some of the analyses. The individual differ-ence measures were completed on 5-point Likert scales.

Results and Discussion

Reactions to the spatial reasoning test. There were no sta-tistically reliable cultural differences in perceived taskimportance, t(49) = .99, p < .33, or perceived perfor-mance compared to others, t(49) = .1.51, p < .14.4 Asanticipated, Asian Canadians reported significantlygreater interest in social comparison (M = 4.77) than didEuropean Canadians (M = 3.87), t(49) = 2.13, p < .04.

Culture and social comparison seeking. Because partici-pants had the opportunity to make both upward anddownward social comparisons, social comparison direc-tion was analyzed as a within-subjects variable. A 2 (cul-ture: Asian Canadian vs. European Canadian) 2 (socialcomparison direction: upward vs. downward) mixed-model ANOVA was conducted. We anticipated thatAsian Canadians would seek more social comparisonsthan would European Canadians. Indeed, there was asignificant main effect for culture, revealing that AsianCanadians selected more social comparisons (M = 3.71)than did European Canadians (M = 1.22), F(1, 49) =16.23, p < .0001, 2 = .25. In addition, there was a maineffect for social comparison direction indicating thatparticipants tended to seek more upward (M = 1.61)than downward (M = 0.86) social comparisons, F(1, 49) =18.11, p < .0001, 2 = .27.

Furthermore, the interaction between culture andsocial comparison direction was marginally significant,F(1, 49) = 3.24, p < .08, 2 = .06. Planned contrasts(Howell, 1997) indicated that Asian Canadians soughtsignificantly more upward than downward comparisons,t(49) = 2.82, p < .005, and significantly more upwardcomparisons than did European Canadians, t(49) = 3.77,p < .0001 (refer to Table 1). These data support ourhypothesis that Asian Canadians are particularly inter-ested in upward social comparison information.

Self-construal and social comparison seeking. Correla-tional analyses revealed that collectivism was related tooverall social comparison seeking, r(49) = .54, p < .0001.Collectivism was related to the seeking of both upward,r(49) = .47, p < .002, and downward, r(49) = .52, p < .0001,social comparisons. Individualism was not significantlyrelated to the seeking of social comparisons in general,r(50) = .10, ns, upward social comparisons, r(50) = .10,ns, or downward social comparisons, r(50) = .09, ns.Asian Canadians scored significantly higher on collectiv-ism (M = 3.60) than did European Canadians (M = 3.30),t(49) = 2.57, p < .02. There was no significant cultural dif-ference in individualism, t(49) = .99, ns.

Mediational analyses were employed to examinewhether self-construal (in this case, collectivism) medi-ated the relation between cultural background andsocial comparison seeking. Cultural background wasassociated with social comparison seeking, F(1, 49) =16.23, p < .0001, = .50, and with collectivism, F(1, 49) =6.63, p < .02, = .35. Furthermore, collectivism was signif-icantly predictive of social comparison seeking when cul-tural background was statistically controlled, F(2, 47) =10.43, p < .01, = .39. When statistically controlling forcollectivism, the relation between culture and socialcomparison seeking was significantly reduced, F(2, 47) =

White, Lehman / CULTURE AND SOCIAL COMPARISON SEEKING 235

TABLE 1: Frequency of Social Comparison Among AsianCanadians and European Canadians (Study 1)

Cultural Background

Asian EuropeanType of Social Canadians CanadiansComparisons Sought (N = 28) (N = 23)

Upward social comparisonsM 2.39a 0.83bSD 1.72 1.23

Downward social comparisonsM 1.32c 0.39bSD 1.06 0.78

NOTE: Numbers indicate the average number of social comparisonsselected. Within columns and rows, means with differing subscripts dif-fer at least at the p < .005 level, two-tailed. The difference between thenumber of upward and downward social comparisons sought by Euro-pean Canadians is marginally significant at the p < .08 level.


10.75, p < .01, = .39, as indicated by a Sobels test ofmediation (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Sobel, 1982), Z = 2.02,p < .05. Thus, self-construal played a partial mediationalrole in the relation between culture and social compari-son seeking.5

Other individual differences and social comparison seeking.Because self-esteem and uncertainty about the self tendto be related to social comparison seeking, we examinedwhether cultural background and self-construal wererelated to social comparison even when these other con-structs were statistically controlled. The relationbetween cultural background and social comparisonseeking remained significant when self-esteem and self-concept clarity were included as covariates, F(1, 47) =20.07, p < .0001, 2 = .30. Similarly, the associationbetween collectivism and social comparison seekingremained significant when self-esteem and self-conceptclarity were statistically controlled, r(46) = .51, p < .0001.

Immigrant status account for social comparison seeking.One alternative explanation for the findings in Study 1 isthat because many of the Asian Canadian participantswere immigrants to Canada, they may be more uncertainabout their relative standing and consequently moreinterested in social comparison. Thus, it may be immi-grant status that leads Asian Canadians to be particu-larly oriented toward social comparison information. Totest this possibility, we examined the length of time par-ticipants had been in Canada. This sample was highlyvariable in that some Asian Canadian participants wereborn in Canada, some had immigrated to Canada whenthey were quite young, and some had only recently immi-grated to Canada. We reran the analyses controlling foryears in Canada, and this did not alter the cultural differ-ences in seeking upward social comparisons, downwardsocial comparisons, or overall social comparison seeking(all ps < .01).6

Study 1 revealed that cultural background was relatedto social comparison seeking in general. The relationbetween culture and social comparison seeking was par-tially mediated by collectivism. Furthermore, AsianCanadians sought more upward social comparisons thandid European Canadians, in line with the notion thatAsian Canadians are motivated in this regard by self-improvement. Alternative explanations such as differ-ences in self-esteem, self-concept clarity, and immigrantstatus did not account for the pattern of results.

Although collectivism was related to social compar-ison seeking, individualism was not. Similarly, pastresearch has found that interdependence, but not inde-pendence, moderates the consequences of social com-parisons. Kemmelmeier and Oyserman (2001), forexample, found that those high in interdependencerated their performance more positively in response to

upward comparison than in the absence of social com-parison, whereas those low in interdependence had lesspositive reactions in response to upward comparisonthan in the absence of social comparison. Indepen-dence, however, did not moderate the consequences ofsocial comparison. Interdependence, therefore, seemsmore telling in terms of social comparison processesthan independence.

STUDY 2

Study 2 further examined the seeking of upward anddownward social comparison information, this timemanipulating whether upward (i.e., failure feedback) ordownward (i.e., success feedback) comparisons wereanticipated (refer to Psyzczynski et al., 1985, for a con-ceptually similar manipulation). A participant who istold that he or she performed below average and seekssocial comparisons is most likely to encounter those whoperformed better (i.e., upward social comparisons),whereas a participant who is told that he or she per-formed above average and seeks social comparisons ismost likely to encounter those who performed worse(i.e., downward social comparisons). Thus, given the na-ture of this task, a person motivated by self-improvementis more likely to seek social comparison informationafter failure than after success because such informationcan help one improve and can provide a source of moti-vation and encouragement. In contrast, a person moti-vated more by self-enhancement is more likely to avoidsocial comparisons after failure and seek social compari-sons after success because such strategies allow one toview the self in a positive light. As such, our main pre-diction was that Asian Canadians would seek moresocial comparisons after failure than success and moresocial comparisons after failure than would EuropeanCanadians.

Method

Participants. Thirty-five European Canadians (29women, 6 men, M age = 20.0) and 34 Asian Canadians(23 women, 11 men, M age = 19.0) completed the studyfor course credit.

Materials and procedure. Participants once again tookpart individually in a study ostensibly about spatial rea-soning and personality. As in Study 1, each participantcompleted the spatial reasoning test and the experi-menter left the room to score the test. To be blind tofeedback condition, the experimenter randomlyselected a feedback sheet without looking at the condi-tion. Adapting a procedure from Pyszczynski et al. (1985,Experiment 1), when the experimenter returned, eachparticipant read a feedback sheet that indicated eitherthat he or she performed very well (above average) on



the test (i.e., success feedback) or that he or she per-formed very poorly (below average) on the test (i.e., fail-ure feedback). Rather than having participants selectspecific rankings to view (as in Study 1), the dependentvariable in Study 2 was the number of tests the partici-pant chose to view. That is, participants simply checkedthe number of scored tests (from 0 to 7) they wished toview. Participants completed the same measures of taskimportance, perceptions of own performance, andinterest in social comparison as in Study 1.

Results and Discussion

Manipulation checks. Those who received positive feed-back had more positive ratings of their performance(M = 5.23) than those who received negative feedback(M = 2.55), t(66) = 9.78, p < .0001. Thus, the feedbackmanipulation appeared to be successful.

Reactions to the spatial reasoning test. There were no sig-nificant cultural differences in ratings of task impor-tance or perceived performance (ps > .4). As in Study 1,Asian Canadians reported more interest in social com-parison (M = 4.34) than did European Canadians (M =3.29), t(66) = 2.59, p < .02.

Culture and social comparison seeking. A 2 (culture: AsianCanadian vs. European Canadian) 2 (feedback: suc-cess vs. failure) ANOVA revealed a main effect for cul-ture, F(1, 65) = 5.51, p < .03, 2 = .08. Replicating Study 1,Asian Canadians (M = 2.48) sought more social compari-son information than did European Canadians (M =1.28). As anticipated, this main effect was qualified by asignificant Feedback Culture interaction, F(1, 65) =4.27, p < .05, 2 = .06. After success, Asian Canadians andEuropean Canadians exhibited similar tendencies toseek social comparison information (see Table 2). How-

ever, the two groups diverged in their behavioral re-sponses to failure. Asian Canadians sought significantlymore social comparisons after failure than did EuropeanCanadians, t(65) = 4.17, p < .0001. The difference innumber of social comparisons sought by Asian Canadi-ans in the success and failure conditions was significant,t(65) = 3.15, p < .01. There was no statistically reliablemain effect for feedback condition, F(1, 65) = 2.01, p .4). In this study,Asian Canadians did not report being significantly moreinterested in social comparison (M = 3.32) than didEuropean Canadians (M = 2.92), t(57) = .95, ns.

Culture, self-improvement, and social comparison seeking. Aculture (Asian Canadian vs. European Canadian) self-improvement condition (similar task vs. dissimilar task) direction of social comparison (upward vs. downward)mixed-model ANOVA with direction of social compari-son as a within-subjects variable revealed the predictedthree-way interaction, F(1, 55) = 4.78, p < .04, 2 = .10.Asian Canadians who believed they were going to com-plete a similar task later in the session were significantlymore likely to seek upward than downward social com-parisons, t(55) = 5.89, p < .0001, and were significantlymore likely than European Canadians to seek upwardsocial comparisons, t(55) = 6.11, p < .0001 (refer to Table3).7 European Canadians, on the other hand, did notseek significantly more upward than downward socialcomparisons when a second similar task was anticipated.These findings lend additional support to our hypothe-sis that Asian Canadians are particularly likely to seekupward social comparisons under conditions that allowfor self-improvement (i.e., after failure and when a sec-ond similar task is anticipated).

The interaction between self-improvement conditionand cultural background significantly predicted upwardsocial comparison, F(1, 55) = 7.90, p < .01, = .62, butonly marginally predicted self-improvement ratings, F(1,55) = 3.60, p < .065, = .17. Self-improvement ratingsdid not statistically mediate the relation between theinteraction term (Culture Self-Improvement) andupward social comparison. The relation between self-improvement ratings and number of upward social com-parisons, although in the expected direction, was notstatistically reliable, r = .15, p < .27. In addition, when self-improvement was included as a variable in the analysisthe interaction between self-improvement condition



and cultural background continued to predict upwardsocial comparison, F(1, 54) = 8.06, p < .01.

In addition, the interaction between cultural back-ground and social comparison direction was significant,F(1, 55) = 10.45, p < .01, 2 = .16. Asian Canadians soughtmore upward social comparisons (M = 1.98) than didEuropean Canadians (M = 0.73), but the two groupssought similar numbers of downward social compari-sons (Ms = 0.33 and 0.12, for Asian Canadians and Euro-pean Canadians, respectively). The interaction betweenself-improvement condition and social comparisondirection was significant, F(1, 55) = 5.81, p < .01, 2 = .10,indicating that those in the self-improvement conditionsought more upward social comparisons (M = 2.09) thanthose in the no self-improvement condition (M = 0.62)and more upward social comparisons than downwardsocial comparisons (M = .88). There was also a Culture Self-Improvement Condition interaction, F(1, 55) =7.25, p < .01, 2 = .12. The difference in number of socialcomparisons sought between European Canadians inthe self-improvement condition (M = 1.57) and those inthe no self-improvement condition (M = 0.55) did notreach significance, t(55) = 1.48, p < .2 . In contrast, AsianCanadians who believed they had the opportunity forself-improvement sought significantly more social com-parisons (M = 4.38) than did those in the no self-improvement condition (M = 0.89), t(55) = 5.92, p

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