The mindlessness of social comparisons.

Social comparing is ubiquitous. In this article, we examine the downside of social comparing for the creative process. Specifically, we argue that social comparisons are typically mindless because we tend to (a) be oblivious to the fact that we are implicitly making choices about the specific subject of comparison, (b) accept at face value that the comparison is meaningful and not transitory, (c) be unaware of the comparison's context-dependent nature, and (d) mindlessly accept the criteria on which the evaluation was based. Research conducted in the context of art creation showed reduced negative consequences of social comparisons for performance perceptions after a mindfulness treatment. Even though the trait and state mindful groups were given the opportunity to make social comparisons, they evaluated their performance similar to the no-social-comparison group, and both were less affected in their performance evaluations than the mindless group that made social comparisons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)