SynthesisHuman brain mapping2018
Social comparison in the brain: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional brain imaging studies on the downward and upward comparisons.
Synthesis in Human brain mapping, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Upward and downward comparisons across monetary and status domains.Human brain mapping · 2020Pooled it
- Love is analogous to money in human brain: Coordinate-based and functional connectivity meta-analyses of social and monetary reward anticipation.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Gender Differences in Large-Scale and Small-Scale Spatial Ability: A Systematic Review Based on Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- A domain-general brain network underlying emotional and cognitive interference processing: evidence from coordinate-based and functional connectivity meta-analyses.Brain structure & function · 2018Pooled it
- The neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the impact of social comparison on effort investment.Communications biology · 2026Article
- From executive control to social emotions: mediation analysis of theory of mind linking executive functions to envy but not Schadenfreude.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Brain network localization of structural and functional abnormality associated with aggression.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Brain in Cross-Cultural Adjustment: A Pilot Study of Japanese Expatriates Living in the United States.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Increased default mode network activation in depression and social anxiety during upward social comparison.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2025Article
- Article
- The neurosociological paradigm of the metaverse.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Neurocomputational Substrates Underlying the Effect of Identifiability on Third-Party Punishment.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- The neuroscience of social comparison and competition.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Overactivation of posterior insular, postcentral and temporal regions during preserved experience of envy in autism.The European journal of neuroscience · 2023Article
- Resilience in adults with colorectal cancer: Refining a conceptual model using a descriptive qualitative approach.Journal of advanced nursing · 2023Article
- Mine or ours? Neural basis of the exploitation of common-pool resources.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- Neural mechanisms of social learning and decision-making.Science China. Life sciences · 2021Review
- Context-based interpersonal relationship modulates social comparison between outcomes: an event-related potential study.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Article
- Individual differences in envy experienced through perspective-taking involves functional connectivity of the superior frontal gyrus.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social comparison is ubiquitous across human societies with dramatic influence on people's well-being and decision making. Downward comparison (comparing to worse-off others) and upward comparison (comparing to better-off others) constitute two types of social comparisons that produce different neuropsychological consequences. Based on studies exploring neural signatures associated with downward and upward comparisons, the current study utilized a coordinate-based meta-analysis to provide a refinement of understanding about the underlying neural architecture of social comparison. We identified consistent involvement of the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in downward comparison and consistent involvement of the anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in upward comparison. These findings fit well with the "common-currency" hypothesis that neural representations of social gain or loss resemble those for non-social reward or loss processing. Accordingly, we discussed our findings in the framework of general reinforcement learning (RL) hypothesis, arguing how social gain/loss induced by social comparisons could be encoded by the brain as a domain-general signal (i.e., prediction errors) serving to adjust people's decisions in social settings. Although the RL account may serve as a heuristic framework for the future research, other plausible accounts on the neuropsychological mechanism of social comparison were also acknowledged. Hum Brain Mapp 39:440-458, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.