Motivational Effects of Being Promised an Opportunity to Engage in Social Comparison
- 1 February 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Psychological Reports
- Vol. 34 (1) , 175-181
- https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1974.34.1.175
Abstract
Introductory psychology students ( n = 34) participated in an experiment to investigate the hypothesis that promising an opportunity to engage in social comparison would be motivational. The dependent variables were performance on a digit symbol task and tonic heart rate. The results showed that a promise of an opportunity to engage in social comparison did have motivational effects. Ss who were promised an opportunity to engage in social comparison manifested a significantly greater improvement in performance as well as a significantly greater increase in tonic heart rate than Ss in the control condition. It was pointed out that future research will have to determine why being promised an opportunity to engage in social comparison is motivational.Keywords
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