Beyond Social and Temporal Comparisons: The Role of Temporal Inter-Group Comparisons in the Context of Dramatic Social Change in Mongolia

In this paper, we argue that the target of comparison should be taken into consideration when evaluating the associated outcomes of negative comparisons in the context of dramatic social change. To achieve this general goal, we considered five distinct targets of comparison: social (my group versus another group), temporal (my group across time), and temporal inter-group (my group versus another group across time). We hypothesised that in times of constant social change, two points of anchors (social and temporal) are simultaneously needed to evaluate one's position. A total of 236 high school and university students from Mongolia participated in the study. We used hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that temporal inter-group comparisons are better predictor of collective esteem than their social and temporal counterparts. Moreover, the link from past and future temporal inter-group comparisons to collective esteem was negative as hypothesized. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications.