Social Comparison Theory and Deception in the Interpersonal Exchange of Consumption Information
Jennifer J. Argo, Katherine White, Darren W. Dahl
Journal of Consumer Research · 2006 · Volume 33 · Issue 1
Abstract
Four experiments demonstrate that self-threatening social comparison information motivates consumers to lie. Factors related to self-threat, including relevance of the social comparison target (i.e., the importance of the comparison person), comparison discrepancy (i.e., the magnitude of the performance difference), comparison direction (i.e., whether one performs better or worse), nature of the information (i.e., whether the comparison is social or objective), and perceived attainability (i.e., the possibility of achieving the compared performance), influenced consumers' willingness to engage in deception. Results extend social comparison theory by demonstrating that comparisons that threaten public and private selves have implications for lying behaviors.
Keywords
Group/Interpersonal Influences, Situation/Context Issues, Word-of-Mouth/Opinion Leadership, Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA)
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