ONLINE SOCIAL COMPARISON ITS ROLE IN PREDICTING INDIVIDUALS’ WELL-BEING

Social comparison is the practice through which people compare their own opinions, abilities, behaviours, and emotions with those of others as an external guide and a source for self-evaluation. Social comparison has been put forward as a core feature of interpersonal relationships both in the offline context and in virtual interactions through social media. A growing number of studies has highlighted that online social comparison through social media can influence individuals’ everyday life. In this thesis, I will examine the role of online social comparison in influencing individuals’ well-being in three research designs with different outcomes. In the first empirical study, a cross-lagged panel model was used to examine the predictive role of online social comparison to ameliorate individual distress during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings of the first study showed that online social comparison predicted an increase in individuals’ levels of anxiety, stress, loneliness and life satisfaction over time. In the second study, Latent Class Analysis was adopted to classify participants into three groups with different levels of problematic Facebook use. Findings from this study showed that online social comparison was linked to passive use of social media and the fear of missing out. Moreover, longitudinal analyses showed that problematic Facebook users reported greater levels of psychological distress and lower levels of well-being at each time point. Finally, in the third study, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to examine the association between online social comparison and body image outcomes. Results from 57 cross-sectional studies showed that online social comparison was linked to body image concerns, eating disorder behaviours and positive body image, demonstrating the importance of the physical appearance comparison in the online contexts. Overall, these results highlight the multifaceted nature of the social comparison construct, which can play a different role in predicting psychological well-being in specific contexts.