It depends on how you look at it: being versus becoming mindsets determine responses to social comparisons.
The current studies examine how focusing on evaluation of the current self (a 'being' mindset) or focusing on the projection of future selves (a 'becoming mindset') influences responses to social comparison information. The studies show that the mindset of individuals, independent of other situational variables, determines whether individuals regard targets as threatening, how targets influence self-evaluations, and how targets affect performance on relevant tasks. The studies also show that mindsets determine what kinds of social comparison information are influential. In a becoming mindset, people are influenced mainly by information from domains that are considered mutable, whereas in a being mindset, people are influenced by information from both immutable and mutable domains.
Johnson
Camille S
CS
San Jose State University, California 95192-0070, USA. johnson.1967@osu.edu
Stapel
Diederik A
DA
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D012649:Self Concept; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception