<![CDATA[The rapid development of social media has increased opportunities for university students to engage in social comparison, particularly upward social comparison, which may influence their self-esteem. While previous studies have consistently reported a negative association between social comparison and self-esteem, most have relied on correlational designs that cannot establish causal relationships. This study aimed to examine the effect of social comparison on students’ self-esteem using an experimental approach. A randomized two-group posttest-only design was employed involving 30 undergraduate students aged 18–24 years, who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). Data were collected online through Google Forms after participants provided informed consent. The experimental group was exposed to social media content depicting students with outstanding academic and non-academic achievements to induce upward social comparison, whereas the control group viewed neutral content without social comparison cues. Participants’ state self-esteem was measured using the State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) developed by Heatherton and Polivy (1991). Data were analyzed using an Independent Samples t-Test to compare self-esteem scores between groups. The results showed no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups (t = 0.528, p = 0.602), indicating that a single brief exposure to upward social comparison content was insufficient to produce a measurable change in students’ state self-esteem under the conditions of this study.]]>
