ArticlePloS one2021
The contributions of social comparison to social network site addiction.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationships between problematic social media use and social comparison: a meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Protégé Effect for Behavior Change: Does Teaching Digital Stress Solutions to Others Reduce One's Own?Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- The relationship between personal growth initiative and college students' social anxiety: the mediating role of core self-evaluation and social comparison orientation.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Childhood adversity and social anxiety among college students: the mediating roles of personal growth initiative and problematic social media use.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The effect of physical exercise on social appearance anxiety among college students: the serial mediating role of social media addiction and self-objectification.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Fear of negative evaluation mediates and core self-evaluation moderates the relationship between social comparison orientation and social network addiction.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a nomogram to predict short video addiction among nursing students in China.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Associations between parental support, social media addiction, and depressive symptoms among early adolescents in Guam.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Fear of missing out and problematic social media use: A serial mediation model of social comparison and self-esteem.Addictive behaviors reports · 2024Article
- Exploring the Emotional Pathway from Motivation to Facebook* Addiction in a Vietnamese Undergraduate Sample.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2024Article
- #influenced! The impact of social media influencing on self-esteem and the role of social comparison and resilience.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Social comparison of ability and fear of missing out mediate the relationship between subjective well-being and social network site addiction.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Problematic Social Networking Site use-effects on mental health and the brain.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Review
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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Excessive use of social network sites (SNSs) can often lead to negative consequences of frequent upward social comparisons despite having the social network platform to present users in a favorable light. However, the existing literature gives little evidence to social comparison related antecedents and consequents of uncontrollable use of SNSs. The present study aimed to investigate the contributions of social comparison to SNS addiction. In Study 1, using a convenient sample in Austria (n = 103), we showed that the tendency to engage in social comparisons of ability (but not of opinion) predicted self-reported SNS addiction over and above the feelings of relative deprivation on social support and status. SNS addiction mediated the relations between social comparison of ability and stress, but not self-esteem. In Study 2, using a broad sample of participants in Austria (n = 500), we replicated the findings observed in Study 1 and showed that contrastive upward social comparison emotions (i.e., envy, depression) mediated the relation between SNS addiction and lower self-esteem whereas the contrastive downward social comparison emotion (i.e., contentment) mediated the relation between SNS addiction and higher self-esteem. Our findings suggest that SNS addiction closely relates to psychological constructs relevant to social comparison, mediates the link between social comparison of ability and detrimental consequences (i.e., stress, well-being) and demonstrate how social comparison emotions relate to both positive and negative associations between SNS addiction and self-esteem.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.