Making Up for Lost Opportunities: The Protective Role of Downward Social Comparisons for Coping With Regrets Across Adulthood

Abstract

Two longitudinal studies showed that if adults confront low opportunities to overcome regrets, downward social comparisons can exert self-protective functions across the adult life span, irrespective of age (Study 1 N = 104 young and older adults, Study 2 N = 51 older adults). Both studies found that downward relative to upward social comparisons were associated with improvements in participants’ positive (but not negative) affect, if they perceived low as opposed to high opportunities to overcome regrets. Moreover, Study 2 showed that this beneficial effect on change in positive affect mediated the experience of fewer cold symptoms over time. Supplemental analyses further indicated that the mechanism linking social comparison processes and opportunities with positive (but not negative) affect was associated with the capacity for goal reengagement. In addition, these analyses showed that the obtained effects were largely unrelated to the severity of regret-related consequences and thus ruled out an alternative explanation of the findings.