{"id":2083,"slug":"rogers-feller-2016-discouragement-by-peers","title":"Rogers & Feller 2016 — upward social comparison to far-superior peers CAUSES quitting","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["fear-appeal-efficacy-pairing"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Rogers & Feller (2016, *Psychological Science*, \"Discouraged by peer excellence: Exposure to exemplary peer performance causes quitting\"): comparison to far-superior peers can cause disengagement; lateral/similar comparisons and closeable gaps motivate.\n\n**Source:** Rogers & Feller 2016, Psychological Science. Verified.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** If the widget benchmarks against competitors (and brief 1 says it should — concrete named targets work), frame the gap as a **closeable, staged** gap. NEVER as an insurmountable chasm. See [[rule-frame-competitor-gap-as-closeable]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-presenting-tiers-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget presentation layer — tiered results without overclaiming (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-frame-competitor-gap-as-closeable","title":"Rule — Frame competitor gaps as CLOSEABLE and STAGED, never as chasms","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:03.468Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:03.468Z"}