Philosophical Perspectives on Social Comparison: Workshop

CFP: Philosophical Perspectives on Social Comparison: Workshop

3-4 April 2025,

Interdisciplinary Center for Ethics

Jagiellonian University in Cracow/Kraków, Poland

Special Issue: Philosophia (Springer)

Since L. Festinger’s 1954 publication of “A Theory of Social Comparison Processes” (now cited close to 35.000 times), the subject of social comparison has been widely studied in such diverse disciplines as behavioral and social psychology, education, human development, and public health, but also sport, management, economics, and policy. Research in these disciplines has contributed to our nuanced understanding of the mechanisms of social comparison (Mussweiler et al. 2006) and its operationality (Suls et al. 2002), its influence on group dynamics and the functioning of the market (Cohn et al. 2014). We ordinarily distinguish three directions in social comparison: upward, downward, and lateral; social comparison is generally considered to be conscious and unconscious, episodical and dispositional; it entails assimilation and contrast (Suls & Wheeler 2000). While there has been a generally optimistic attitude toward the prospects or benefits of social comparison for human well-being and functioning, empirically driven research in the last 15 years points toward a troubling downside of social comparison. We realize that social comparison can negatively influence work motivation, moral development, and mental health (White et al. 2006).

Philosophical literature on social comparison is scarce and seems to largely ignore the philosophical side of this human phenomenon. A few exceptions are reconstructive and applied research on social comparison in D. Hume (James 2005; Hartman 2021) and S. Kierkegaard (Lippitt 2023; Kaftanski 2023), as well as research on social comparison and particular emotions (Kelly 2024).

This workshop has four goals. First, we want to further explore and nuance insights from the history of philosophy on social comparison. Second, our ambition is to provide synthetic philosophical accounts of social comparison that draw on and dialogue with non-philosophical disciplines. Three, we aim to explore ways in which philosophical insights on social comparison are useful to other disciplines concerned with investigating this phenomenon. Four, we want to theorize the normative implications of social comparison.

Topics include

·      The nature and components of social comparison

·      Individual and group-oriented social comparison

·      The moral psychology and normativity of social comparison

·      Philosophy of social comparison in dialogue with non-philosophical disciplines

·      Social comparison and emotions, virtues/vices, dispositions, and psychological traits

·      Perspectives from the history of philosophy on social comparison

·      Normative implications of social comparison for applied philosophy, education, mental health, and other relevant disciplines.

The workshop language is English. There is no registration fee. Please submit an abstract of between 300-500 words by 1 December 2024 to Wojciech Kaftanski ([email protected]) with the subject line Social Comparison 2025 _Surname. The abstract should include presenter’s name, surname, affiliation, and presentation title. Notification of acceptance by 1 January 2025. Presenters are expected to send a developed presentation draft of around 2000 words for general workshop-participant distribution by 5 March 2025 (before the workshop).

·      Cohn, A., Fehr, E., Herrmann, B., & Schneider, F. (2014). Social Comparison and Effort Provision: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Journal of the European Economic Association, 12(4), 877-898.

·      Festinger, L. (1954). A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117-140.

·      James, S. (2005). Sympathy and Comparison : Two Principles of Human Nature. In Marina Frasca-Spada & P. J. E. Kail (eds.), Impressions of Hume. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 61-107.

·      Hartmann, M. (2021). Contempt for the Poor, Esteem for the Rich: The Interplay of Comparison and Sympathy in Hume’s Treatise. The European Legacy, 27(5), 415–434. 

·      Kaftanski, W. (2023). The Vice of Social Comparison in Kierkegaard: Nature, Religious Moral Psychology, and Normativity. Religions, 14(11),1394.

·      Kelly, R. M.  A Phenomenological Analysis of Envy. New York and London: Routledge.

·      Lippitt, J. (2023). Kierkegaard, “the Public”, and the Vices of Virtue-Signaling: The Dangers of Social Comparison. Religions,14(11), 1370. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111370

·      Mussweiler, T., Rüter, K., & Epstude, K. (2005). The Why, Who, and How of Social Comparison: A Social-Cognition Perspective. In S. Guimond (Ed.), Social Comparison and Social Psychology: Understanding Cognition, Intergroup Relations, and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 33–54.

·      Suls, J., Martin, R., & Wheeler, L. (2002). Social Comparison: Why, With Whom, and With What Effect? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5), 159-163.

·      Suls, J., Wheeler, L. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of Social Comparison: Theory and Research. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

·      White, J, Langer, E., Yariv, L., Welch, J. (2006). Frequent Social Comparisons and Destructive Emotions and Behaviors: The Dark Side of Social Comparisons. Journal of Adult Development, 13(1), 36-44.