The cognitive miser's perspective: Social comparison as a heuristic in self-judgements

Abstract

The metaphor of the cognitive miser is a milestone in the development of social cognitive research. It highlights the limited cognitive resources of the social thinker and the demand for fast and efficient processing of information. In marked contrast to the impact of this metaphor on social cognition research in general, it has so far been mostly overlooked in research on social comparison. In this article we want to lay out the potential of social comparison research if one takes on the perspective of a cognitive miser. Specifically, we consider social comparison as a heuristic for evaluating the self. First, we look for evidence for the ease of comparative self-evaluations. Second, we analyse the standard selection process and identify routine standards that facilitate the comparison process. Third, we investigate the cognitive mechanisms in social comparisons and suggest that comparison mechanisms leading to assimilation are more efficient than mechanisms leading to contrast effects.

Keywords:

• Social comparison
• Self-judgements
• Heuristics
• Cognitive miser
• Social cognition

Acknowledgments

The present research was supported by a European Young Investigator (EURYI) award from the European Science Foundation (ESF). We would like to thank the members of Social Cognition Cologne for stimulating discussions of this work.