Big Frogs in Little Ponds or Little Frogs in Big Ponds?

Try to recall your first day of school, or maybe college, and think about the fluttering butterflies in your stomach. What about the moment when you were waiting to appear for an interview with 15 other people waiting with you? Starting a new phase of your life, with new people, a new environment, and a completely different objective in mind, is often daunting. As you enter this new atmosphere, you become aware of every step you take, your mannerisms, your way of speaking, everything. People generally try to develop an understanding of their identity by comparing how they talk, behave, emote, their characteristics, and even their status with those of other people and groups. 

Hence, Leon Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory brings to light the significance of comparison with others for knowledge about self. However, there is always a thin line that exists which when crossed, may lead to more harm than good. Take yourself back to that waiting room, where you are still waiting to be called for the interview. You look around yourself and think how the person to your left might have prepared more than you. Then you look to your right and further think about how the other candidate is better dressed than you. More often than not, we find ourselves in situations like these, that might not only make us underconfident but also end up making us feel a little hopeless. 

Social Psychology assists us in summing up this strange feeling and giving it the name, “Frog Pond Effect”. This phenomenon was first noticed when James A. Davis saw a relation between students’ performance and the result of their ranks based on their environment. It is a theory that suggests that when people are part of a group of higher-performing individuals then they tend to evaluate themselves as worse than they are, in comparison to others. Seems a little familiar right? 

Studies have shown that people who perform well in a group of unsuccessful people have better reactions when compared to equally qualified people who perform among said successful people. This kind of frog pond effect occurs because the individual compares their performance to their immediate group (peers) and not across other groups.

Just like every coin has two sides, so does comparison. It can help you reach great heights, but can also bring you down. Comparison is not something that can be avoided, it is only crucial to understand on what basis you are comparing the given entities. It is easier said than done, but what if this time you do not look at your left or right, instead you think straight, go into that room, and give all that you have got? You might fail, but you might as well succeed in becoming the big frog in comparison to the little frog that you might have been earlier in your mind.