Social Comparison as a Predictor of Shame Proneness Dimensions

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to examine the role of social comparison in predicting two dimensions of a moral emotion, i.e. shame, among employees working in the private companies in the Greatcity of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The participants were 203 employees (99 males, 104 females, age average 28.75 years old, and standard deviation of the age 5.917 years), taken using purposive sampling technique. The measurement scales of this study were adapted and developed from Social Comparison Scale and Shame Proneness Scale. As many as 60 individuals participated in the measurement instrument’s validity and reliability testing phase. Research design of this study is predictive correlational with simple linear regression as the statistical technique of data analysis. This study found that social comparison can predict Negative Self-Evaluation and Withdrawal Action Tendency, as the dimensions of shame, in negative ways. There are at least two theoretical contributions of this research to the literature of psychology of corruption. First, self-evaluation as a result of the general social comparison, which initially has no moral weight, can have serious implications on one’s morality, especially through the negative self-evaluation dimension of shame moral emotion. Second, this study provides scientific support to the everyday wisdom suggesting that we should not compare ourselves with others so as not to fall into immorality tendencies, including corruption.