Less is more: Why some domains are more positional than others

Tess Bogaerts and Mario Pandelaere

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2013, vol. 39, issue C, 225-236

Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that people’s concern about their position relative to a reference group (i.e., positional concern) is stronger in some domains than in others. Our survey data reveals that people care more about their relative position in domains where they have to engage in social comparison to evaluate outcomes. People thus tend to have strong positional concerns in domains with a high level of need for comparison. Moreover, we demonstrate that making social comparisons not directly elicit positional concerns, but trigger a competitive mindset making people want to be better off than others in society.

Keywords: Positional concerns; Relative evaluation; Status; Social comparisons; Competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D03 D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:39:y:2013:i:c:p:225-236

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2013.08.005

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