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Effects of Objective Feedback and “Single Other” or “Average Other” Social Comparison Feedback on Performance Judgments and Helping Behavior

In two studies, participants received positive or negative feedback about their performance on a verbal task and then provided hints to another person on a subsequent, different task. It was expected that participants would give more helpful hints after positive than after negative feedback but that this would be more apparent when the feedback was based on performance comparisons with the “average participant” than on comparisons with another person or an objective standard. This effect was expected to be mediated by judgments of one’s performance on the first task. These predictions were supported. Participants seemed aware of the effect of feedback on their hint choices, and their hint choices did not alter their affect levels. Also, participants receiving comparative (single or aggregated target) feedback exhibited changes in self-ascribed importance of the performance domain. Implications for social comparison theory and self-evaluation maintenance theory are discussed.