The research effort in the present thesis has focused on tracing the possibly mixed blessing of downward social comparison in the domain of close relationships. The goal of the current research was twofold: It was examined whether cognitive downward comparison might have positive consequences for the perceived quality of the relationship on the one hand, and on the other hand whether individuals respond negatively to someone who overly engages in downward social comparison.

The six experimental studies reported in this thesis sought to explore the impact of cognitive downward comparison on individuals' psychological well-being as well as individuals' responses to others who overtly display downward comparison behavior. More specifically, it was examined whether a higher perceived relationship quality will result from inducing individuals to engage in cognitive downward social comparison on the one hand, whereas observers of downward comparison activities might respond negatively when someone else exhibits such comparisons publicly.

Furthermore, the current research explored the extent to which relational discontent moderated the positive consequences of cognitive downward social comparison for the evaluation of the quality of one's relationship. In addition, the role of individual differences in social comparison orientation was explored by examining the extent to which the positive impact of cognitive downward social comparison and the negative responses to overt downward comparison were affected by individuals' tendency to compare themselves in general to others.

As noted previously, individuals may feel better about their own situation and their subjective well being may be enhanced through comparisons of themselves with other people who are less fortunate than themselves. Wills (1987; see also Taylor et al., 1983) discussed several cognitive mechanisms that serve the purpose of making people feel comparatively fortunate. Although such downward comparisons may be achieved in various ways, downward comparisons often consist of a cognitive process in which individuals construct downward comparison targets, or derogate others' good abilities and personal attributes (cf. Wills, 1987).

Yet, the effects of cognitive downward comparison on individuals' well-being have scarcely been studied in the domain of close relationships (see for recent exceptions, Buunk, 1996, 1998; Buunk & Van den Eijnden, 1997). Therefore, the present thesis has attempted to clarify the consequences of relationship-enhancing downward comparisons for individuals' perceived quality of the relationship. It was assumed that those engaging in cognitive downward comparison may count their blessings in that such comparisons might positively affect the evaluation of their own relationship.

This is not to say that downward comparison will necessarily be a blessing, however. Concurrent with the possibly positive consequences of cognitive downward comparison for individuals' psychological well-being, individuals engaging with little reluctance in overt downward social comparison activities may evoke a negative reaction on the part of the individuals who observe such social comparison behavior. Therefore, individuals may even arrange matters so that their comparisons are made in a private (i.e. cognitive) and implicit way to avoid violating "a fundamental rule of adult social life by making explicit comparison" (Wills, 1981, p. 265).

These observations have led several theorists to propose that social comparison in general, and downward social comparison in particular, is viewed as socially undesirable, although this claim has as yet, little evidence to support it. The impact of other causes for the reluctance to acknowledge social comparisons, such as a lack of awareness or problems in selectivity, recall, and aggregation, have been suggested by other theorists (cf. Wood, 1996).

All in all, it seems likely that a hesitancy to report on downward social comparison behavior might hamper adequate research on social comparison. If this proves to be the case, it seems important to examine whether downward social comparisons are considered as socially undesirable and whether such comparisons evoke negative responses on the part of those who observe such comparison behavior. Hence, the present work intended to shed more light on the reluctance issue by examining the possible negative reactions that may be provoked by someone else who openly engages in downward social comparison.