Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review

Meier A, Johnson BK (2022)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article, Review article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Book Volume: 45

Article Number: 101302

DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101302

Abstract

There is both public and scholarly concern that (passive) social media use decreases well-being by providing a fertile ground for harmful (upward) social comparison and envy. The present review critically summarizes evidence on this assumption. We first comprehensively synthesize existing evidence, including both prior reviews and the most recent publications (2019–2021). Results show that earlier research finds social comparison and envy to be common on social media and linked to lower well-being. Yet, increasingly, newer studies contradict this conclusion, finding positive links to well-being as well as heterogeneous, person-specific, conditional, and reverse or reciprocal effects. The review identifies four critical conceptual and methodological limitations of existing evidence, which offer new impulses for future research.

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How to cite

APA:

Meier, A., & Johnson, B.K. (2022). Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101302

MLA:

Meier, Adrian, and Benjamin K. Johnson. "Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review." Current Opinion in Psychology 45 (2022).

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