Jonathan Gerber

Jonathan Gerber

Jonathan Gerber appears on this site as first author of the 2018 Psychological Bulletin meta-analysis of more than 60 years of social comparison research.

Who they are

The work of Jonathan Gerber reaches this site through the paper listed below. On this site the name is tied to Downward Social Comparison, Social Comparison.

Key papers

Gerber, J. P., Wheeler, L., & Suls, J. (2018). A social comparison theory meta-analysis 60+ years on. Psychological Bulletin, 144(2), 177-197. What it reports: Two meta-analyses of more than 60 years of social comparison research. Given a choice, people preferred downward targets except under threat, and reactions to comparison were mostly contrastive.

Key ideas

Downward Social Comparison: Comparison with a target judged to be doing worse.

Social Comparison: Leon Festinger's account of how people work out where they stand.

Sources

  1. Gerber, J. P., Wheeler, L., & Suls, J. (2018). A social comparison theory meta-analysis 60+ years on. Psychological Bulletin, 144(2), 177-197.