Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test

For readers who want to understand how strongly other people’s opinions, achievements, and circumstances enter their self-evaluation, the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test offers a focused profile of comparison habits. It can support reflection on confidence, information seeking, and how social comparison orientation shapes self-evaluation. The result describes a tendency rather than a fixed personality label.

What This Assessment Explores

The questionnaire covers opinions, abilities, achievements, social standing, and life circumstances as people use others for self-evaluation. It suits readers examining how they judge their views or progress in relation to others.

The three reported scales are:

• Opinion Comparison Orientation (1-5) shows reliance on others’ views; Low 1-2.3, Moderate 2.4-3.6, High 3.7-5.
• Ability Comparison Orientation (1-5) shows comparison of skills and achievements; Low 1-2.3, Moderate 2.4-3.6, High 3.7-5.
• Overall INCOM Score (1-5) measures the overall tendency to compare oneself with others; higher scores are associated with greater interest in self-evaluation and emotional involvement in comparison; Low orientation 1-2.3, Moderate 2.4-3.6, High orientation 3.7-5.

This social comparison questionnaire supports reflection on how often comparison enters self-evaluation, not whether it is upward or downward, helpful, distressing, or accurate.

Methodology and Evidence Base

Five response options run from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, with a neutral or unsure middle choice. The statements ask about comparing achievements, performance, opinions, experiences, problems, and social standing, while the online questionnaire reports displayed summary scores for its three scales. The questionnaire does not state how each answer contributes to them.

The questionnaire is an online presentation of the 11-item Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM), introduced by Gibbons and Buunk (1999), which treats comparison orientation as an individual difference in using others as reference points and distinguishes opinion- and ability-related comparison. Suls, Martin, and Wheeler describe informational and self-evaluative functions of comparison. Gerson, Plagnol, and Corr’s dimensionality study is relevant to opinion- and ability-related comparison. This online questionnaire is not independently normed for population comparisons, so its bands should be read as displayed categories rather than population norms.

Self-report answers can shift with current relationships, recent success or disappointment, social context, and self-awareness. A higher score indicates more frequent comparison, but does not establish its direction, emotional effect, or accuracy.