Utah paradoxically ranks at the top of the list of states in well-being and among the highest in suicide rates. How can these two seemingly opposite events be found in the same area? The answer might best be answered by Festinger’s (1954) idea of social comparison. Social comparison states that individuals self-evaluate through comparison with others. The positive or negative value of the target in the comparison situation also influences the effects of social comparison. When the comparison target is deemed superior to the self, then one engages in an upward comparison. The disparity between the upward target and the self can hurt self-concept.
If Utah ranks among the highest states in well-being then this can result in upward comparison when less happy individuals see the disparity between their own feelings and their happier counterparts. Imagine waking up, feeling down and then seeing everyone else having a great time with smiles on their faces. This would naturally result in feelings of jealousy and discontentment. You might be thinking that comparison doesn’t matter as much as your absolute value of happiness. The idea that one’s absolute value trumps one’s relative value has been shown to be flawed. In a study by Klein(1997), he showed that individuals who scored a higher grade on a test but less that of their comparison targets were less content with their score than individuals who had scored an overall lower grade but higher than their comparison target. The number on your test doesn’t matter as much as the grade on everyone else’s test in relation to yours. One’s individual level of happiness can be damaged if everyone else is walking around with high levels.
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