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Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM)3

Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test

With 13 questions, the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test takes about three minutes. It helps you explore how often you evaluate yourself against unfamiliar people, close contacts, or your own past and future selves, offering a clearer profile for self-reflection and understanding your personal tendencies.

Questions: 133 minutes

Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure: situation and reply bubbles

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025Material has been updatedOctober 2, 2025Material has been published

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2,496 completions

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Daniel Hall Psychologist · Test reviewer

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Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

With StrangersWS

Measures how often you compare yourself with unfamiliar people to gauge your standing against broader social norms.

example score2/8

2/8Lowexample score

0 – 3Low

4 – 6Moderate

7 – 8High

A score of 2 indicates a low tendency to compare yourself with strangers, suggesting you rely relatively less on broad social reference points when evaluating yourself.

With Familiar PeopleWFP

Measures how much you compare yourself with familiar people when evaluating yourself and your progress.

example score9/16

9/16Low comparisonexample score

0 – 11Low comparison

12 – 16High comparison

A score of 9 suggests you generally rely less on comparisons with familiar people, using them occasionally rather than as a primary reference point.

Self-ComparisonSC

Measures how strongly a person tends to evaluate themselves by comparing their current achievements and setbacks to their own past performance.

example score13/28

13/28Moderate self-comparisonexample score

0 – 8Low self-comparison

9 – 21Moderate self-comparison

22 – 28High self-comparison

A score of 13 indicates a moderate tendency to use past personal performance as a reference point when judging current successes and failures.

Social Comparison OrientationSCO

Measures how strongly you tend to evaluate yourself by comparing your qualities, behavior, or achievements to other people.

example score31/52

31/52Moderateexample score

0 – 14Low

15 – 39Moderate

40 – 52High

A score of 31 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting you sometimes use others as a reference point for self-evaluation but are not consistently driven by social comparison.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Self-esteem and anxiety seekers

41%OF USERS

People who often feel “not good enough” and want to understand how comparing themselves to others, their past, or an ideal self affects their mood and confidence.

Growth-minded goal setters

34%OF USERS

People focused on self-improvement who use the results to see whether they’re driven more by progress over time, high personal standards, or social benchmarks.

Coaching and counseling clients

25%OF USERS

People working with a coach or therapist who want a clear snapshot of their comparison habits to guide discussions about motivation, boundaries, and self-perception.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Shaded area — where most people score

Dot — the average

You — your score lands on each curve after the test— your score, after the test

with strangersws

You?

Average2.8

Typical rangeTypical1.5 – 4

Possible0 – 8

with familiar peoplewfp

You?

Average6.9

Typical rangeTypical4.3 – 9.6

Possible0 – 16

with oneselfwo

You?

Average12.5

Typical rangeTypical8.2 – 16.9

Possible0 – 28

Focus on Social ComparisonFoSC

You?

Average30.4

Typical rangeTypical23.1 – 37.7

Possible0 – 52

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

- 0: I never compare
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4: I compare all the time
- 0 – never compare
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4 – compare all the time
- 0 — I never compare
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4 — I compare all the time

These are 3 of the 13 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test - Description and methodology of the test

social comparisons

People who notice that their self-evaluation changes with context may find the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) Test useful for examining comparison habits without treating a single moment as a complete picture. The INCOM questionnaire suits respondents who want to examine whether comparison habits shape confidence, motivation, or judgments of progress. Results provide a descriptive profile for self-reflection.

What This Assessment Explores

As a social comparison orientation questionnaire, this assessment examines whether self-evaluation is anchored to other people or to different versions of oneself. Items cover close contacts, unfamiliar people, average types, imagined people, and past, ideal, feared, or unrealized selves. The pattern shows the main reference points.

The three target-related scales and the overall score describe these routes and their reporting bands:

With Strangers (0-8) reflects broad-group comparison: Low 0-3, Moderate 4-6, High 7-8.
With Familiar People (0-16) reflects reliance on close contacts: Low comparison 0-11, High comparison 12-16.
Self-Comparison (0-28) reflects evaluating successes and failures against past achievements; future, ideal, feared, and unrealized selves are item contexts, while the bands are Low self-comparison 0-8, Moderate self-comparison 9-21, and High self-comparison 22-28.
Social Comparison Orientation (0-52) summarizes the broader tendency to evaluate oneself through others: Low 0-14, Moderate 15-39, High 40-52.

Methodology and Evidence Base

Each item uses a five-point frequency response from 0 (never compare) to 4 (compare all the time). The respondent selects the option that best represents typical experience. In this social comparison test, the chosen frequency level is the recorded response.

The questionnaire documents the response scale and displayed bands, but not an item-by-item aggregation or weighting rule. Three target-related scores and an overall score are reported; their bands are descriptive categories, not universal norms or clinical cutoffs.

The closest structural source is the ROOSS questionnaire described by Samoylenko, Savchenko, and Korbut (2017), with psychometric comparisons reported by Savchenko, Samoylenko, and Korbut (2019). Gibbons and Buunk (1999) provide the INCOM framework, while Suls, Martin, and Wheeler (2002) discuss comparison targets and effects. This online questionnaire is conceptually consistent with the cited ROOSS and INCOM work; it is not a reproduction of the original INCOM measure or a validated adaptation.

Self-report remains sensitive to current context, self-awareness, and response bias, so scores are best read as reflection prompts rather than fixed personal traits.

Author: Jerry Suls, Ladd Wheeler

Literature:

Samoylenko, E. S., Savchenko, T. N., & Korbut, A. V. (2017). A Methodological Instrument for Measuring Orientation Toward Types of Social Comparison. In A. L. Zhuravlev & V. A. Koltsova (Eds.), Fundamental and Applied Research in Contemporary Psychology: Results and Prospects of Development (pp. 532-541). Moscow: Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Savchenko, T. N., Samoylenko, E. S., & Korbut, A. V. (2019). Comparison of Psychometric Indicators of Instruments for Measuring Orientation Toward Social Comparison. Experimental Psychology, 12(2), 112-130. 10.17759/exppsy.2019120209
Gibbons, F. X., & Buunk, B. P. (1999). Individual Differences in Social Comparison: Development of a Scale of Social Comparison Orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(1), 129-142. 10.1037//0022-3514.76.1.129
Suls, J., Martin, R., & Wheeler, L. (2002). Social Comparison: Why, With Whom, and With What Effect? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5), 159-163. 10.1111/1467-8721.00191

Updated: 2025-10-02