3_4_Annoying Feature No.2-Reference Point

Our mind does anything in terms of absolute, it thinks relative to reference points. 

And our mind to just sucks at picking reference points. 

It just soaks in whatever reference point we get, 

and it doesn't actually have a great filter. 

And so, the more you can kind of force that filter on it, the better you will be.

珍爱生命，远离攀比，每个人都是上帝带给人间的礼物，何不快乐的做回小天使呢，相信自己是独一无二的，哦，阿门~

其实几乎没人会在意你的朋友圈发什么，真正在意也许只有父母家人，然而可能还被你屏蔽了，我现在已经不刷别人的了，自己想发就发，在乎那么多干嘛，开心就好。

Our minds don’t think in terms of absolutes; our minds judge to relative reference points

Medvec et al. (1995). When less is more: Counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 603–610.

This paper tells us due to the power of salient reference points, bronze winners tend to be happier than silver medal winners

获得铜牌比得银牌的人开心

Lyubomirsky (2007). The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York, NY: Penguin Books. Page 44.

This book tells us salary goals rise as salary rises, which may be due to changing reference points

收入低时，期望的涨幅小于收入高的，比如10万希望涨到20万，100万希望涨到250万。

van Praag and Frijters (1999). "The measurement of welfare and well-being: the Leyden approach." In Well-Being: The foundation of hedonic psychology. New York: Russel Sage Foundation. Pages 413-433.

This book excerpt tells us reference points mess up good salaries - for every $1.00 increase in your actual income, your “required income” increases by $1.40

Clark and Oswald (1996). Satisfaction and comparison income. Journal of Public Economics, 61(3) 359-381.

This paper tells us reference points mess up good salaries - if your coworkers make more money than you do, then you will be less satisfied with your job.

同事的高薪会影响人对工作的满意度。

Solnick and Hemenway (1997). Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 37, 373-383.

This paper tells us reference points mess up good salaries - in a hypothetical earnings situation people would prefer to make less money if their coworkers make less rather than make more money if their coworkers make more。

Clark (2003). Unemployment as a social norm: Psychological evidence from panel data. Journal of Labor Economics, 21(2), 323-351.

This paper tells us those who are unemployed tend to be happier if the unemployment rate in their area is high。

如果行业内的失业率很高，失业者心里会更平衡。

O’Guinn and Shrum (1997). The role of television in the construction of consumer reality. Journal of Consumer Research, 23(4), 278-294.

This paper tells us television programs - featuring products and activities associated with an affluent lifestyle - act as a harmful social comparison skewing perception of others’ wealth and our own wealth。

Schor (1999). The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need. New York: NY: Harper Perennial.

This book tells us watching television programs act as a harmful social comparison and increases spending。

Kuhn et al. (2011). The effects of lottery prizes on winners and their neighbors: Evidence from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. American Economic Review, 101(5), 2226-2247.

This paper tells us social comparisons influence our spending - people that live next door to lottery winners are more likely to buy a new car

Burleigh and Meegan (2013). Keeping Up with the Joneses affects perceptions of distributive justice. Social Justice Research, 26(2), 120-131.

This paper tells us social comparisons mess up good grades - students would rather miss out on a potential grade increase just so that others in the class don’t get an increase, too

Kenrick et al. (1993). Effects of physical attractiveness on affect and perceptual judgments: When social comparison overrides social reinforcement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(2), 195-199.

This paper tells us social comparisons mess up our perceptions of physical appearance - looking at models make us feel bad.

社交产生的比较会使人被表象迷惑，看多了光鲜，吃多了柠檬，人会难过。

Kenrick et al. (1989). Influence of popular erotica on judgments of strangers and mates. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25(2), 159-167

This paper tells us social comparisons mess up our perceptions of physical appearance - looking at models leads to lower ratings of our partners’ attractiveness

Vogel et al. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(4), 206-222.

This paper tells us use of social media makes us compare ourselves to others which lowers our self-esteem - even a manipulated facebook feed featuring people that are worse off than we are does not lead to much higher self-esteem ratings.