A Selective History of Classic and Neo-Social Comparison Theory

In his brief history of the field from 1950 to the early 1980s, Wheeler (1991) observed that Social comparison theory has a most peculiar history. Pictorially, the history is like the tracks of a squirrel in my snow-covered backyard. The tracks zig and zag unpredictably and then disappear near an elm, to be next seen near a maple, or the tracks may be obscured by those of other squirrels, or rabbits. (p. 3) In this chapter, we provide a historical context for the chapters in this handbook. Although we will cover some of the same ground as the previous brief history, we also provide an update of developments during the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps with almost 20 additional years of research and theory, we will find that the tracks in the backyard no longer appear to be quite as haphazard. On the other hand, they may appear to be even more so, as a fundamental phenomenon— comparison with others—refuses to be contained by its previous constructions.