Abstract

People vary considerably in their social comparison orientation (SCO), which the extent (tendency) to which they compare themselves with others. Understanding individual differences in SCO is important, because it is associated with various types of rea-life outcomes. Therefore, using diffusion tensor imaging data from healthy young adults, I investigated not only the correlation between individual SCO and the fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values of the uncinate fasciculus (UF), associated with social-emotional processing, but also the correlation between individual SCO and each of demographic characteristics (age, sex, and duration of education). Multiple regression analyses were also preformed to test the ability of models with only demographic variables and models with demographic and brain variables to predict SCO. Correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between SCO and the FA and MD of UF. Additionally, age and duration of education were negative correlated with individual SCO, and women had higher SCO score than men. Multiple regression analyses revealed the model with sex, education, and UF FA better predicted individual SCO than others. These results provide novel insights into the predictors of individual SCO, showing the involvement of UF and some demographic information in individual differences in SCO.