Positive social comparisons are just as harmful as negative ones

Evidence

Life in the hive favors those who most naturally orient toward external cues rather than toward one’s own thoughts, feelings, values, and sense of personal identity. When considered from the vantage point of the self-other balance, positive social comparisons are just as pernicious as negative comparisons. Both are substitutes for the “hard bargain” of carving out a self that is capable of reciprocity rather than fusion. Whether the needle moves up or down, social comparison is the flywheel that powers the closed loop between the inclination toward the social mirror and its reinforcement. Both ego gratification and ego injury drive the chase for more external cues. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1479

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that both positive and negative comparison corrupt the self parallels the engine of surveillance capitalism: any engagement, pleasurable or painful, feeds the behavioral surplus machine. — connects to: Favorable group comparisons can increase rather than reduce expressed prejudice — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1516; A consensual status system can paradoxically protect group self-esteem from comparison; Advantageous comparison can reframe ecological harm as morally justified — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2659 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that ego gratification and ego injury equally power an external-cue loop reframes self-esteem as itself a form of behavioral surplus extraction — a dense point sitting with for a while.

Broader Connections

• Favorable group comparisons can increase rather than reduce expressed prejudice #qualifies (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1516
• More social media connections can worsen users’ emotional states through comparison loops #exemplifies (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1473
• A consensual status system can paradoxically protect group self-esteem from comparison #qualifies (0.75)
• Advantageous comparison can reframe ecological harm as morally justified #exemplifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2659