In Study 5 the set of scenarios was further developed and extended to again serve as the basis for varying the direction of comparison and the target under evaluation. Moreover, the measure of social desirability was expanded to include additional items. In addition, a measure of identification was added to the present study. It was anticipated that participants would identify more with an discussant who reveals partner-enhancing evaluations than with a self-enhancing discussant, whereas this pattern would be reversed if the discussant communicates self- and partner-deprecating characterizations.

Finally, in accordance with the paradigm that was employed in Chapter 2, namely a thought-listing task that induced participants to actively engage in cognitive downward social comparison, participants in the current study were likewise asked to actively evaluate the self or the partner in the same manner as the discussant whose statements are reproduced in an accompanying scenario. Where self-enhancing evaluations, relative to enhancing evaluations of the partner, are generally considered as more socially inappropriate, and where such evaluations seem to evoke more negative emotions on the side of recipients who find themselves in an unfavorable position, people asked to provide such self- or partner-evaluations might themselves experience a greater reticence to describe themselves than to describe the partner in an enhancing manner.

Hence, it was expected that people would be able to generate more extensive partner-enhancing descriptions than self-enhancing evaluations. On the other hand, in view of the fact that partner-deprecating evaluations are generally appraised more negatively than deprecating self-evaluations, it was anticipated that people would be able to generate more extensive self-deprecating descriptions than partner-deprecating evaluations. To test the assumption, a thought-listing task invited participants to portray the self or partner in either an enhancing or deprecating manner (according to the experimental conditions).