Impact of Social Comparison on Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life: An Experimental Field Study

Objective: For cancer survivors, the recovery phase after hospital treatment can be bothersome. Social comparison information from fellow cancer survivors can improve the quality of life in this situation. Method: In a randomized field experiment, 139 Dutch cancer survivors (M-age = 52 years; 70.5% women) were assigned to a control condition or 1 of 3 experimental conditions in which they listened to an interview with fellow cancer survivors. The interview's content is about patients' negative emotions and/or the effective coping strategies patients used. A validation study among 101 students showed that the conditions were perceived as intended. In the main study, quality of life was assessed after 2 months (using the LASA, Cantrils' Ladder, and 2 items of the EORTC-C30). Results: The effects of the interviews depended on the participants' self-reported health status and sensitivity to social comparison information (p<.001). Highly sensitive patients with a good health status benefited from the information; in those not sensitive, quality of life diminished. In patients with a poor health status, the effects were reverse. Conclusions: This study showed that a brief intervention comprised of testimonials of fellow cancer survivors had an impact on the quality of life of cancer survivors after 2 months. However, subgroups of patients were detected whose quality of life decreased because of the intervention. These results stress the need to be careful in providing social comparison information and to consider side effects of psychosocial interventions.