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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2021

Open Access 01-12-2021 | Mood Disorders | Research article

The effects of social comparison and depressive mood on adolescent social decision-making

Authors: Yixin Hu, Mengmeng Zhou, Yunru Shao, Jing Wei, Zhenying Li, Shike Xu, Phil Maguire, Dawei Wang

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2021

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Abstract

Background

Based on social comparison theory, two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of depression and social comparison on adolescents, using the ultimatum game (UG).

Methods

Before the formal experiment began, a preliminary experiment tested the effectiveness of social comparison settings. This study used the UG paradigm to explore adolescents’ social decision-making in the context of gain and loss through two experiments. These experiments were designed as a 2 (group: depressive mood group, normal mood group) × 2 (social comparison: upward, downward) × 3 (fairness level: fair 5:5, unfair 3:7, extremely unfair 1:9) three-factor hybrid study.

Results

(1) The fairer the proposal was, the higher the sense of fairness participants felt, and the higher their acceptance rate. (2) The acceptance rate of the participants for downward social comparison was significantly higher than that for upward social comparison, but there was no difference in fairness perception between the two social comparisons. (3) Under the context of gain, the acceptance rate of the depressive mood group was higher than that of the normal mood group, but there was no difference in the acceptance rate between the depressive mood group and the normal mood group under the loss context. Depressive mood participants had more feelings of unfairness in the contexts of both gain and loss. (4) The effects of depressive mood, social comparison and the fairness level of distribution on social decision-making interact.

Conclusions

The interaction of social comparison, depressive mood and proposal type demonstrates that besides one’s emotion, cognitive biases and social factors can also have an effect on social decision-making. These findings indicate that behavioral decision boosting may provide an avenue for appropriate interventions in helping to guide adolescents to make social decisions.
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Metadata
Title
The effects of social comparison and depressive mood on adolescent social decision-making
Authors
Yixin Hu
Mengmeng Zhou
Yunru Shao
Jing Wei
Zhenying Li
Shike Xu
Phil Maguire
Dawei Wang
Publication date
01-12-2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2021
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02928-y

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