With ESSEC Knowledge Editor-in-chief
“Comparison is the thief of joy”, as the expression goes. In the workplace, recent research suggests that being compared to your colleagues can indeed have a cost - and that women pay the highest price. In an article published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Judy Qiu, Assistant Professor of Management at ESSEC, and Selin Kesebir, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, studied the impact of social comparison feedback at work, analyzing the gender differences in employee reactions and the importance of taking these unintended effects into account when implementing feedback systems.
Social comparison at work
Social comparison starts long before we enter the workplace: we compare our clothes, our behaviors, and our grades to those of our classmates. It also comes from others, for example via published class ranks and the number of social media likes or followers one has. In short, social comparison refers to how you think about others in relation to yourself - and how the world thinks about you in relation to others. In the workplace, social comparison feedback uses employees’ performance as a yardstick, looking at a given person’s performance relative to that of their colleagues.
For organizations, this can be a useful tool, since it can drive motivation, effort, and performance at no cost to the bottom line. Most research has explored either self-initiated social comparisons or how people react to social comparisons; here, the researchers explored other-initiated social comparisons and how people feel in the lead-up to receiving this type of feedback. They find that while social comparison feedback may not have a financial cost, the psychological cost can be steep, generating negative feelings in employees.
Analyzing social comparison feedback
To better understand how social comparison feedback impacts employees, the research team conducted a series of six experiments. This included a set of lab experiments, with participants being informed that they would receive feedback after completing a task, with the option to receive social comparison feedback or absolute feedback (on just their performance, without information on how others performed). In other experiments, participants reflected on their work experiences with relation to receiving feedback or were asked to react to a hypothetical workplace scenario.
They found that women tended to prefer absolute feedback to relative feedback, with the prospect of receiving social comparison feedback generating feelings of anxiety. Women also tended to be more concerned about the impact that these social comparisons would have on their workplace relationships. Strikingly, this was true even when the women expected to receive positive feedback - meaning performance expectations, and even their actual performance, didn’t explain the aversion to receiving being compared to their colleagues. Female participants also reported lower levels of competitiveness, which is consistent with the literature.
The psychology of feedback: Why do women and men react differently?
Dr. Qiu explains that this is linked to gender socialization theory. Male peer groups tend to be more accepting of social comparisons and be more interested in seeking a higher status, whereas female peer groups prioritize egalitarian systems. The differences in how men and women are socialized as children is connected to gender differences in adulthood, with women’s lower rates of competitiveness and desire to preserve positive working relationships leading to stress about receiving feedback that compares them to others - regardless of their beliefs about their performance. Women see this type of feedback as a threat to smooth relationships with their peer group -in this case, their coworkers.
While social comparison feedback systems are often seen as a way to boost employee performance and drive without costlier incentives, this research shows that the psychological cost makes it worth rethinking this kind of system. With even the prospect of social comparison feedback causing anxiety, it may not be worthwhile for organizations to use this strategy. This uncovers a blind spot in organizational behavior practices, and the need to consider diversity and inclusion in feedback systems. If employees experience this type of anxiety over the long term, it could lead to burnout and decreased job satisfaction - counterproductive results for a successful company. By considering employee preferences when it comes to delivering feedback, organizations can design productive, effective, and inclusive strategies that benefit all involved.
Reference
Qiu, J., & Kesebir, S. (2026). Gender Differences in Aversion to Social Comparison Feedback. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 01461672261424936.
