How comparing ourself with others can boost or damage our motivation
Scientific litsketch on boosting motivation
Research shows that comparing ourself with others who are more successful than us can improve our motivation to better ourself if we compare with others who are moderately better than us (Diel et al., 2021). However, comparing ourself with those who are extremely better than us decreases our motivation and effort. The research also found that comparing ourself with others who are moderately better than us in the domain that we consider to be very important and within our control increases our motivation even further. On the other hand, comparing ourself with those who are less successful than us reduces our motivation and effort, but improves our positive emotions while reducing our negative emotions.
The research surveyed 454 people over five days, and asked them to report whether they had compared themselves with another person and whether they saw themselves to be worse, similar or better than the other person. The participants also answered how much motivated they felt to improve themselves, and how much positive and negative emotions they felt.
The results show that comparing ourself with others who are more successful than us can boost our motivation and effort, but at the expense of greater negative emotions. Also, comparing ourself with those who are extremely better than us backfires and damages our motivation.
The key to increasing and sustaining our motivation is to be inspired by others who are moderately more successful than us. But don’t compare ourself with those who are extremely successful as this will take away our motivation. Having the humility to count others more significant than us will give us an effective dose of motivation and effort.
Diel, Kathi, Sonja Grelle, and Wilhelm Hofmann. "A motivational framework of social comparison." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2021).