You were in the condition in which you wrote about a student who always seems to get the highest grades in class. Social psychologists predict that this upward comparison condition may have motivated you to rate your traits as somewhat lower than you would normally. These comparisons are especially likely to occur if the traits you are thinking about relate to the person of comparison (Collins, 1996). Although you rated several traits in terms of how much they describe you, there were two traits that were particularly relevant to your writing task: Intelligent and Hardworking. It is likely that when you wrote about the other student you thought about how intelligent and/or hardworking he or she is (since these factors play an important role in academic ability). In light of these ideas, do you think that the writing task you did influenced your trait ratings?

You were in the condition in which you wrote about a student who always seems to get the lowest grades in class. Social psychologists predict that this downward comparison condition may have motivated you to rate your traits as somewhat higher than you would normally. These comparisons are especially likely to occur if the traits you are thinking about relate to the person of comparison (Collins, 1996). Although you rated several traits in terms of how much they describe you, there were two traits that were particularly relevant to your writing task: Intelligent and Hardworking. It is likely that when you wrote about the other student you thought about how intelligent and/or hardworking he or she is (since these factors play an important role in academic ability). In light of these ideas, do you think that the writing task you did influenced your trait ratings?