Armed with evidence for the validity of the assumptions regarding the appropriateness of self-enhancement and partner-enhancement, a third study was designed to explore the responses to downward social comparison of the self and the close partner with others. Specifically, Study 6 addressed the question of how recipients respond to comparative and noncomparative evaluations. The major question was whether comparative and noncomparative evaluations of the self and the partner would influence individuals' social desirability ratings of such evaluations and their feelings about the discussant.

Further, it was examined whether participants felt annoyed whilst reading statements containing explicit reference to social comparison (cf. Brickman & Bulman, 1977). It was expected that people would consider comparative statements as more socially undesirable than noncomparative statements, and that this difference would be more pronounced when the evaluations concerned the self rather than the partner. Accordingly, comparative evaluations would evoke fewer positive feelings (i.e., sympathy) and more negative feelings (i.e., annoyance) than noncomparative evaluations, and more so when it concerned self-evaluations rather than the partner-evaluations.

Furthermore, it was examined whether participants would suppose the discussant to be more satisfied with his or her relationship when the statements included evaluations of positive qualities in a comparative (i.e., self- or partner-enhancing social comparison) rather than in a noncomparative manner. In line with the findings presented in Chapter 2, it was expected that someone who overtly evaluates the self or the partner in an enhancing fashion would be expected to experience more relationship satisfaction than someone who exhibits evaluations in a noncomparative manner. Furthermore, in view of the fact that partner-enhancement is considered as more desirable and elicits more positive feelings for the discussant than self-enhancement, it was anticipated that this effect would be more pronounced where it concerned partner-enhancing rather than self-enhancing evaluations.

Finally, Study 6 explored whether the reactions to comparative evaluations would be moderated by individual differences in recipients' orientation toward social comparison (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999). As outlined earlier in the current thesis, the concept of social comparison referred to the personality disposition of individuals who are strongly oriented to social comparison, who are quite attentive to their own status relative to others, and who are interested in information regarding others' thoughts and behaviors in similar circumstances.

Although social comparison was not related to social desirability, various studies have showed that social comparison orientation was positively related to the selection and the attention to comparison information, as well as to the affective consequences of such comparisons (Van der Zee et al., 1998; see also Gibbons & Buunk, 1999). Thus, it seems likely that an individual who observes someone else engaging in explicit and overt social comparison, and who is high in social comparison orientation may be particularly attentive to comparison activities, because the observer might reason that he or she is involved in the comparison as one of the comparison targets.

Moreover, such an observation may in turn even prompt the observer to also engage in social comparison. Thus, relative to observers low in social comparison orientation, those high in social comparison orientation may regard explicit references to social comparison as more socially undesirable and may respond more negatively when someone openly contrasts, for instance, the self as a partner or the intimate partner, with others worse off. Therefore, it was predicted that especially those high in social comparison orientation would react negatively to other individuals who make boastful statements with an explicit reference to social comparison, in particular when the statements refer to the self rather than to the intimate partner.