Upward social comparison and self-concept: Inspiration and inferiority among art students in an advanced programme Kathryn Burleson, Colin Wayne Leach* and David M. Harrington University of California, Santa Cruz, USA We examined the role of social comparison in changes in the artistic self-concept of adolescents attending an advanced arts programme. Unfavourable comparisons that promoted a sense of inferiority and favourable comparisons that promoted inspiration were measured just prior to, in the first week of, and at the end of the 6 week programme. Consistent with the ‘big fish little pond effect’, inferiority comparisons made during the programme were associated with negative changes in self-concept. Consistent with the social comparison literature, however, inspiration comparisons made during the programme were associated with positive changes in self-concept. Rather than suggesting that exposure to highly talented peers is necessarily unfavourable, results suggest that the interpretation of the comparisons made in situ determines the favourability of such exposure. Moving into a setting populated by highly successful others can challenge even the strongest self-concept. Indeed, it can be hard for people to move from being a ‘big fish in a little pond’ to being a ‘little fish in a big pond’ (Davis, 1966). For example, research by Marsh and colleagues has shown that when highly successful students leave their regular academic settings and enter advanced programs their academic self-concept tends to get worse (e.g. Marsh, Chessor, Craven, & Roche, 1995; Marsh, Kong, & Hau, 2000). Although it is well documented, this big fish little pond effect is somewhat paradoxical because promotion to an advanced programme is usually designed to benefit, rather than harm, students’ self-concepts. The paradox of the big fish little pond effect has been explained in terms of social comparison (for a review see Marsh et al., 2000). For example, highly successful students in regular academic settings should have little trouble favourably comparing themselves to the abundance of relatively less successful students. When promoted to an advanced programme, however, these previously successful students should be less able to make favourable comparisons to their new, highly talented, peers. In fact, students who saw themselves as superior by comparison to their regular peers may * Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Colin Wayne Leach, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA (e-mail: cwleach@ucsc.edu). The British Psychological Society 109 British Journal of Social Psychology (2005), 44, 109–123 q 2005 The British Psychological Society www.bpsjournals.co.uk DOI:10.1348/014466604X23509