Comparing you = Comparing me: Social comparisons of the expanded self

We examine whether individuals respond to comparisons involving romantic partners as they would to comparisons involving the self. four studies (n = 2,210) using recalled (studies 1-3) and actual (study 4) comparisons about attractiveness (study 1) and relationship skills (studies 2-4) demonstrated that individuals high in self-other overlap decrease domain relevance following upward but not downward comparisons to protect their positive partner perceptions. this strategy was absent among those low in self-other overlap. study 2 demonstrated that this effect extends to best friends,but not casual friends,due to the degree of self-other overlap. furthermore,when reminded of their partner’s inferiority in a domain,high overlap participants maintained positive global partner perceptions,whereas low overlap participants’ global perceptions were negatively affected (study 3). these results suggest that individuals do experience partner-other comparisons as if they were directly involved,but only if their partner is incorporated into their self-identity. © 2015 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.