#3 To strive to be like Sienna or glad that you're not Minnie Mouse on loose

Many a times we'll compare ourselves to others. From what I can remember, as young as in primary school, I will compare myself with my peers, how they had done in the exams, what kind of toys they have and up till now, what kind of bags, shoes they carried. And maybe, few months down the road, how much salary they are drawing.

Personally I feel, this social comparison either boost my self esteem or it will crash it.

When I was young, I did badly in maths. But I'll always tell my mum that there are people who scored worse than me. Mum will alway tells me not to compare with people who had scored worse. I will not improve in that case.

At that time, this doesn't makes sense to me. I had scored badly in maths, but why can't I compare myself with them? At least they makes me feel better right?

And now, after going through social psychology, it then makes sense to me. What I had been doing is known as downward social comparison. It allows me to feel good about myself as I am not the worst student in class. By comparing ourselves with people who is in situation less positive than us makes our situation looks better in contrast. Thus, it sort of like a boost in the self esteem.

But mum had my intention in mind. She wants me to improve. thus would had prefer if I compare myself to people who had done better than me. This is known as upward social comparison. It's like having a role model so we will follow and work harder to be like the role model.

As I ponder more about upward and downward social comparison, this article in Glamour UK, demonstrated a very good example of us performing upward and downward social comparison when we are doing very minute task such as reading a magazine.
Drew Barrymore , Sienna Miller, Lindsay Lohan and the lady in red is someone we will definitely compare using upward comparison. We will inspire to dress as nicely as them or maybe try losing some weight but we are definitely glad that we don't dress like Minnie Mouse, a walking garden or a whore.