Mindsets and social comparison: Being aware of the competitor

The mindset theory posits that people have less favorable beliefs while deliberating on actions or goals than while planning and implementing them. This is thought to be a self-regulatory mechanism that helps people choose reasonable goals, on one hand, and persist in goal pursuit, on the other. In the present experiment we tested the hypothesis that the beliefs of implemental participants differ from those of deliberative ones only in case that favorable views would not set them up for failure and disappointment. Participants in a deliberative or in an implemental mindset were asked to compare with two other persons with respect to a set of achievement-related activities. They were also told that they would have to compete with one of these persons in a motor-skills task. It could be shown that the participants generally tended to rate the comparison targets as being worse off. As in former experiments, this tendency was, however, reduced in deliberative participants. In addition, it was reduced in implemental participants when they expected to compete with the comparison target later on. Implemental participants did thus have more favorable views than deliberative ones only if they had not to compete with the comparison target. This seems to be a good strategy to enhance the feelings of one's own competence without running the risk of failure and embarrassment.