2010/01/01 by Dorian L. Bloom, Mark D. Alicke, Ethan Zell · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Memory Processes and Influences #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
paper · doi:10.1037/e566842012-254
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Zell and Alicke (2009) have shown that comparisons with a few people have a stronger influence on self-evaluations than comparisons with larger samples. One explanation for this effect is that people readily categorize their standing in small groups as “good” or “bad,” which supersedes large-sample data. To test this explanation, we created a situation in which students learned that their performance ranked 5th or 6th out of 10 persons on a task. In each experimental session, two groups, each containing 5 people, were created by random assignment. Some students learned that their performance placed them last in one group of 5, and some learned that they were first in the other group of 5. In the other conditions, participants learned only that that they were 5th or 6th in the group of 10. Results showed that being last in the superior group led to lower self-evaluations than being first in the inferior group.