Social comparisons and need fulfillment
- Author(s)
- John Velez, David Ewoldsen, Michael Hanus, Hyunjin Song, Jonathan Villarreal
- Abstract
This study examines how social comparison information provided by video game leaderboards may influence players’ retrospective judgments of autonomy, competence, and relatedness need fulfillment. Participants played a video game and were randomly assigned to receive no postgame feedback or were shown a leaderboard that placed them in the top or bottom quartile of players. Results indicate downward social comparisons increase enjoyment by increasing competence and relatedness perceptions. However, upward comparisons did not have an opposite effect, nor did either type of social comparison influence players’ autonomy perceptions. Implications for applying Self-Determination Theory to video game enjoyment in the context of social comparison feedback is discussed.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Indiana University Bloomington, Michigan State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Texas Tech University
- Journal
- Communication Research Reports
- Volume
- 35
- Pages
- 424-433
- No. of pages
- 10
- ISSN
- 0882-4096
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2018.1525352
- Publication date
- 2018
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508006 Communication theory
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/social-comparisons-and-need-fulfillment(8166fce6-2d34-4792-b6e0-cdec044df067).html