Social comparison processes among cancer patients

This study focuses on two problems of cancer patients: uncertainty and anxiety. The significance of fellow-patients in coping with uncertainty and anxiety was studied by means of a questionnaire which was completed by 418 patients. The results show that patients who experience uncertainty prefer to address themselves to experts for information. The need for social comparison with fellow-patients increases as information available from experts diminishes. For social comparison patients prefer fellow-patients perceived as equals because they are perceived as most informative. Furthermore, it appears that patients who perceive others as instrumental in reducing uncertainty show a greater need for social comparison as uncertainty increases. Fellow-patients are generally perceived as more informative as more uncertainty is experienced. With increasing anxiety the significance of fellow-patients for evaluation of this anxiety proves to increase. Only at a very high level of anxiety does this significance diminish greatly, presumably because the interaction has negative affective consequences.