The Effect of Social Comparison Feedback on Task Completion in a Human-Service Setting
Abstract
There has been much debate over the most successful types of feedback, but little
research has examined the use of social comparison feedback. The purpose of the
present study was to assess the effects of social comparison feedback on the
percentage of end-of-shift cleaning tasks completed by three behavior technicians
identified as exhibiting lower performance. The social comparison feedback
consisted of a bar graph depicting the percentage of tasks completed by the
individual participant in relation to two behavior technicians identified as high
performers. Following the client shift, the researcher shared the graph and delivered
vocal social comparison feedback during an individual meeting with each
participant. All 11 cleaning tasks were being performed below the mastery
criterion, but performances exceeded the criterion on seven of 11 tasks with the
addition of social comparison feedback. Completion of each task increased between
55% and 97%. Overall, the average percentage of tasks completed by all three participants was 6% in baseline and 83% during intervention. The results suggest
social comparison enhanced the performance of participants and that the
intervention is a cost-effective strategy for increasing cleaning behaviors.