The Best of Friends, the Worst of Friends: Interpersonal and Intergroup Consequences of Seeking the Best

Abstract

I examine the effect of maximizing on consumers’ conduct toward others in two essays. In essay 1, I explore how the goal of attaining the best influences the word of mouth that consumers share with others. Building on the notion that attaining the best is associated with not only getting the best, but also being the best relative to others, I show in seven studies that maximizing increases consumers’ propensity to share favorable word of mouth about unsatisfactory purchases, specifically in an effort to encourage others to make the same poor choices, as this enhances relative standing and subjective feelings toward their own choice. I further demonstrate that individuals particularly exhibit this behavior when sharing with interpersonally close (vs. distant) others, as close others tend to be especially relevant to relative standing. Finally, I consider the downstream consequences of such behavior, showing that when individuals are successful in their attempts to bring close others down to their level, they feel subjectively better about their decisions, but they are also burdened with feelings of guilt that erode their overall wellbeing. In essay 2, I shift my focus from consumers’ behavior to their perceptions, examining maximizing’s potential impact on consumers’ perceptions of their social groups (i.e., in-groups) and their fellow group members. I demonstrate in six studies that because maximizers’ in-groups provide a relevant arena in which the best may be realized by outdoing in-group members, maximizers identify strongly with their in-groups. That is, they feel highly connected with their in-groups because they want to be the best within those groups. Although past research assumes this enhanced identification should subsequently have a positive impact on maximizers’ evaluations of fellow group members, I show that because such identification is rooted in maximizers' motivation to best in-group members, they instead view fellow members as a comparison target to be bested, and are actually less favorable (vs. non-maximizers) in their assessments of in-group members relative to non-members. However, I further demonstrate that when maximizers evaluate their in-groups at the aggregate rather than the individual level, thereby limiting their capacity to engage in individual comparisons, they are especially favorable in their in-group assessments, consistent with their heightened in-group identification.