This dynamic creates a self-reinforcing loop. People with high self-esteem are less vulnerable to upward comparison, which intensifies those doubts. Those with a secure sense of self are more likely to use comparison as a learning tool. The same external stimulus—a colleague’s achievements, a friend’s popularity—can have radically different effects depending on internal stability.
Self-esteem also influences how people choose their comparison targets. Research has found that individuals often engage in “selective comparison,” seeking out those who confirm their existing beliefs about themselves. This can become a subtle form of self-sabotage. Someone who feels unworthy may subconsciously seek out targets that reinforce that sense, perpetuating a narrative of inferiority. One of the most promising antidotes to social comparison is temporal comparison—evaluating oneself not against others, but against one’s own past. This method has been shown to increase motivation and satisfaction, especially when individuals can see concrete progress. Temporal comparison activates the same reward circuits as social comparison but avoids the threat systems associated with social ranking. It also reinforces agency: individuals focus on what they can control and improve rather than what others control. In therapeutic and coaching settings, temporal comparison is used to help clients build self-efficacy and track growth over time.
Moreover, people who focus on self-improvement rather than social dominance are less likely to fall into cycles of envy or self-pity. They can still use others as inspiration, but they do so without attaching their self-worth to the outcome. This is not to say they never compare—but that they focus on learning, rather than judgment. The most skilful approach to comparison may lie in eliminating it, but in reframing it as feedback. When we interpret comparison as information rather than a verdict, we can ask, “What can I learn from this?” This shift turns comparison into a growth tool. Teachers mentor their students, not as rivals. Psychologists emphasize that the key variable here is mindset.
A fixed mindset sees comparison as a threat. If someone else is better, it means we are worse. A growth mindset sees comparison as a map. If someone else has reached a certain level, it means the path exists. This reframing is not just a cognitive trick. It changes the emotional tone of comparison, making it more likely to inspire than to wound. Reframing also requires emotional regulation—the ability to notice an initial pang of envy or shame without reacting impulsively. With practice, individuals can learn to pause, reflect, and reinterpret their emotional responses. Over time, this builds resilience and self-trust, allowing comparison to become a learning tool rather than a cage.
Based on the passage, which of the following options will the author BEST agree with regarding the differences between temporal and social comparison?
Show Hint
- Temporal comparison excludes objectivity by excluding all interpretation, whereas social comparison is externally influenced.
- Temporal comparison measures performance by embedding it in a hierarchy, whereas social comparison does not.
- Temporal comparison relies on both reward and threat circuits, whereas social comparison relies only on the threat circuitry.
- Temporal comparison eliminates threat responses, whereas social comparison eliminates threat circuitry.
- Temporal comparison eliminates threat responses, whereas social comparison activates the emotional threat circuitry.
The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
The passage explains how temporal comparison helps individuals focus on their own progress, activating reward circuits without triggering the threat systems linked to social comparison. On the other hand, social comparison is associated with the activation of threat systems due to the ranking of individuals.
Step 2: Evaluating the options.
- (A) Temporal comparison excludes objectivity by excluding all interpretation, whereas social comparison is externally influenced: This does not match the passage. Temporal comparison is presented as a way to improve self-assessment, not as a method that excludes interpretation.
- (B) Temporal comparison measures performance by embedding it in a hierarchy, whereas social comparison does not: The passage does not suggest that temporal comparison embeds performance in a hierarchy, so this is incorrect.
- (C) Temporal comparison relies on both reward and threat circuits, whereas social comparison relies only on the threat circuitry: This is the correct answer. The passage clearly mentions that social comparison activates threat circuits, while temporal comparison activates both reward and threat systems, though with a focus on the reward circuits.
- (D) Temporal comparison eliminates threat responses, whereas social comparison eliminates threat circuitry: This is incorrect because the passage does not suggest that temporal comparison eliminates threat responses entirely, only that it avoids them.
- (E) Temporal comparison eliminates threat responses, whereas social comparison activates the emotional threat circuitry: While partially correct, it is not as precise as option (C), which directly mentions the activation of both reward and threat circuits in temporal comparison.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (C) because it accurately reflects the passage's description of how temporal comparison engages both reward and threat circuits, while social comparison primarily activates threat circuitry.
Based on the passage, which of the following will the author MOST agree with?
Show Hint
- High self-esteem affects upward comparison negatively, but resilience helps cope with the negativity.
- High self-esteem ensures that the anchor of comparison is seen as opportunity for growth.
- The need for upward comparison reduces when we have high self-esteem.
- High self-esteem creates a reinforcing loop of adequacy making us look forward to upward social comparison.
- High self-esteem ensures that upward comparison must yield positive results.
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
The passage discusses how individuals with high self-esteem interpret upward comparison as an opportunity to grow, rather than as a threat or source of negativity. This is a key takeaway from the author's view on self-esteem and comparison.
Step 2: Evaluating the options.
- (A) High self-esteem affects upward comparison negatively, but resilience helps cope with the negativity: The passage suggests that high self-esteem helps individuals see comparison as a tool for growth, not negatively. This does not align with the author’s perspective.
- (B) High self-esteem ensures that the anchor of comparison is seen as opportunity for growth: This is the correct answer as it best reflects the passage’s message that self-esteem helps individuals view comparisons in a positive light.
- (C) The need for upward comparison reduces when we have high self-esteem: While this is true in some sense, the passage focuses more on how self-esteem influences the way comparisons are interpreted rather than the frequency of upward comparisons.
- (D) High self-esteem creates a reinforcing loop of adequacy making us look forward to upward social comparison: This is not the best fit, as the passage talks about the positive effects of self-esteem but does not suggest that people look forward to upward comparison, but rather use it as a tool for growth.
- (E) High self-esteem ensures that upward comparison must yield positive results: This is incorrect, as the passage emphasizes viewing comparison as a tool for growth, not necessarily ensuring positive results.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (B) because it best represents how high self-esteem allows individuals to view comparison as an opportunity for growth.
Based on the passage, which of the following is NOT true about comparison?
Show Hint
- The effect of negative comparisons can be altered when individuals approach it with a growth-oriented mindset.
- Variation in self-esteem influences how individuals perceive comparisons with others.
- The impact of social comparison depends on how individuals interpret comparisons with others.
- People with high self-esteem do not require to rely on temporal comparison for learning.
- Individuals with low self-esteem prefer those comparisons that reinforce negative self-evaluation.
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
The passage describes how comparison can be influenced by self-esteem and mindset. It discusses how people with high self-esteem do not necessarily rely on upward comparisons for learning, and how those with low self-esteem may prefer negative comparisons. However, the passage does not claim that a growth mindset directly alters the effects of negative comparisons.
Step 2: Evaluating the options.
- (A) The effect of negative comparisons can be altered when individuals approach it with a growth-oriented mindset: The passage does not suggest that a growth mindset alters the effects of negative comparisons, but rather discusses how comparison is viewed differently depending on self-esteem. This option is the most incorrect.
- (B) Variation in self-esteem influences how individuals perceive comparisons with others: This is true. The passage mentions how self-esteem affects how comparison is perceived, whether as a judgment or as a learning opportunity.
- (C) The impact of social comparison depends on how individuals interpret comparisons with others: This is correct. The passage states that social comparison can be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on how it is interpreted.
- (D) People with high self-esteem do not require to rely on temporal comparison for learning: This is true. The passage suggests that individuals with high self-esteem may not need to rely on temporal comparison for growth.
- (E) Individuals with low self-esteem prefer those comparisons that reinforce negative self-evaluation: This is accurate. The passage mentions that individuals with low self-esteem tend to seek comparisons that reinforce negative self-views.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The correct answer is (A) because the passage does not support the idea that a growth mindset directly alters the effects of negative comparisons.
Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
When people who are talking don’t share the same culture, knowledge, values, and assumptions, mutual understanding can be especially difficult. Such understanding is possible through the negotiation of meaning. To negotiate meaning with someone, you have to become aware of and respect both the differences in your backgrounds and when these differences are important. You need enough diversity of cultural and personal experience to be aware that divergent world views exist and what they might be like. You also need the flexibility in world view, and a generous tolerance for mistakes, as well as a talent for finding the right metaphor to communicate the relevant parts of unshared experiences or to highlight the shared experiences while demphasizing the others. Metaphorical imagination is a crucial skill in creating rapport and in communicating the nature of unshared experience. This skill consists, in large measure, of the ability to bend your world view and adjust the way you categorize your experiences. Problems of mutual understanding are not exotic; they arise in all extended conversations where understanding is important.
When it really counts, meaning is almost never communicated according to the CONDUIT metaphor, that is, where one person transmits a fixed, clear proposition to another by means of expressions in a common language, where both parties have all the relevant common knowledge, assumptions, values, etc. When the chips are down, meaning is negotiated: you slowly figure out what you have in common, what it is safe to talk about, how you can communicate unshared experience or create a shared vision. With enough flexibility in bending your world view and with luck and charity, you may achieve some mutual understanding.
Communication theories based on the CONDUIT metaphor turn from the pathetic to the evil when they are applied indiscriminately on a large scale, say, in government surveillance or computerized files. There, what is most crucial for real understanding is almost never included, and it is assumed that the words in the file have meaning in themselves—disembodied, objective, understandable meaning. When a society lives by the CONDUITmetaphor on a large scale, misunderstanding, persecution, and much worse are the likely products.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Later, I realized that reviewing the history of nuclear physics served another purpose as well: It gave the lie to the naive belief that the physicists could have come together when nuclear fission was discovered (in Nazi Germany!) and agreed to keep the discovery a secret, thereby sparing humanity such a burden. No. Given the development of nuclear physics up to 1938, development that physicists throughout the world pursued in all innocence of any intention of finding the engine of a new weapon of mass destruction—only one of them, the remarkable Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, took that possibility seriously—the discovery of nuclear fission was inevitable. To stop it, you would have had to stop physics. If German scientists hadn’t made the discovery when they did, French, American, Russian, Italian, or Danish scientists would have done so, almost certainly within days or weeks. They were all working at the same cutting edge, trying to understand the strange results of a simple experiment bombarding uranium with neutrons. Here was no Faustian bargain, as movie directors and other naifs still find it intellectually challenging to imagine. Here was no evil machinery that the noble scientists might hide from the problems and the generals. To the contrary, there was a high insight into how the world works, an energetic reaction, older than the earth, that science had finally devised the instruments and arrangements to coart forth. “Make it seem inevitable,” Louis Pasteur used to advise his students when they prepared to write up their discoveries. But it was. To wish that it might have been ignored or suppressed is barbarous. “Knowledge,” Niels Bohr once noted, “is itself the basis for civilization.” You cannot have the one without the other; the one depends upon the other. Nor can you have only benevolent knowledge; the scientific method doesn’t filter for benevolence. Knowledge has consequences, not always intended, not always comfortable, but always welcome. The earth revolves around the sun, not the sun around the earth. “It is a profound and necessary truth,” Robert Oppenheimer would say, “that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.”
...Bohr proposed once that the goal of science is not universal truth. Rather, he argued, the modest but relentless goal of science is “the gradual removal of prejudices.” The discovery that the earth revolves around the sun has gradually removed the prejudice that the earth is the center of the universe. The discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God. The discovery of evolution is gradually removing the prejudice that Homo sapiens is a separate and special creation.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
As the post–World War II generation of liberal democratic leaders forged new, highly successful domestic and international institutions and policies throughout the West, the weaknesses of liberal democracy that dominated the two decades after World War II faded from view. But they did not go away.
First, because liberal democracy restrains majorities, it slows the achievement of goals that majorities support. This generates frustration with institutional restraints, and an unacknowledged envy of authoritarian systems that can act quickly and decisively. China can build huge cities in the time it takes the United States to review the environmental impact of small highway projects. Liberal democracy requires more patience than many possess. Second, liberal democracy requires tolerance for minority views and ways of life to which many citizens are deeply opposed. It is natural to feel that if we consider certain views or ways of life to be odious, we should use public power to suppress them. In many such cases, liberal democracy restrains this impulse, a psychological burden that some will find unbearable.
This leads directly to the third inherent problem of liberal democracy—the distinction it requires us to make between civic identity and personal or group identity. For example, although we may consider certain religious views false and even dangerous, we must, for civic purposes, accept those who hold these views as our equals. They may freely express these views; they may organize to promote them; they may vote, and their votes are given the same weight as ours. The same goes for race, ethnicity, gender, and all the particularities that distinguish us from one another.
This requirement often goes against the grain of natural sentiments. We want the public sphere to reflect what we find most valuable about our private commitments. Liberal democracy prevents us from fully translating our personal identities into our public lives as citizens. This too is not always easy to bear. The quest for wholeness—for a political community, or even a world, that reflects our most important commitments—is a deep yearning to which liberal leaders can always appeal.
Nor is the fourth inherent difficulty of liberal democracy—the necessity of compromise—easy to bear. If what I want is good and true, why should I agree that public decisions must incorporate competing views? James Madison gives us the answer: in circumstances of liberty, diversity of views is inevitable, and unless those who agree with us form a majority so large as to be irresistible, the alternative to compromise is inaction, which is often more damaging, or oppression, which always is.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Beware of the old newspapers
stacked
on that little three legged stool over there.
Don’t disturb them.
I know it for a fact
that snakes have spawned in between these sheets.
Don’t even look in that direction.
It’s not because of breeze
that their corners are fluttering.
It’s alive, that nest of newspapers.
new born snakes, coiling and uncurling,
are turning their heads to look at you.
That white corner has spread its hood.
A forked tongue
shoots out of its mouth.
Keep your eyes closed.
Get rid of the whole goddamn pile if you
want to
in the morning.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Disparate as these targets might initially appear, there is a through line in the trolls’ targeting practices: the concept of exploitability. Trolls believe that nothing should be taken seriously, and therefore regard public displays of sentimentality, political conviction, and/or ideological rigidity as a call to trolling them. In this way, lulz functions as a pushback against any and all forms of attachment, a highly ironic stance given how attached trolls are to the pursuit of lulz. The final marker of trolling is the troll’s insincerity and celebration of anonymity. The ability to obscure one’s offline identity has a number of immediate behavioral implications. Most obviously, anonymity allows trolls to engage in behaviors they would never replicate in professional or otherwise public settings, either because the specific behaviors would be considered socially unacceptable, or because the trolls’ online persona would clash with their offline circumstances — for example, if the troll in question were a schoolteacher or nurse. Even if the person behind the troll avoided explicitly bigoted speech or behavior, his or her extracurricular interests would likely upset or merely baffle family members and coworkers, further reinforcing the importance, perhaps even necessity, of keeping one’s real-life identity under wraps.
Conversely, successful trolling is often dependent on the target’s lack of anonymity, or at least their willingness to disclose real-life attachments, interests, and vulnerabilities. This, according to the troll, is grounds for immediate trolling, since in the trolls’ minds, the Internet is — at least should be — an attachment-free zone. The trolling mantra “Nothing should be taken seriously” suggests as much, and functions both as a rallying cry and post hoc justification for trollish behavior. Trolls believe that, by wearing their hearts (or political affiliations, or sexual preferences, or other aspects of identity) on their sleeves, their targets are asking to be taught a lesson. Trolling is thus framed by trolls in explicitly pedagogical terms. Maybe next time, trolls argue, the target won’t be so stupid. Maybe next time they won’t be such obvious trollbait. In this way, trolls are — at least in their own minds — doing their targets a favor.- XAT - 2026
- Verbal and Logical Ability
- Reading Comprehension
Questions Asked in XAT exam
- Arrange the following generations from the oldest to the youngest:
1. Generation X
2. Silent Generation
3. Generation Alpha
4. Baby Boomers
5. Millennials
- XAT - 2026
- Current Affairs
- Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Brijbhushan, a microfinancier, lends money at the rate of Rs.10 per square meter to small farmers at a village. He charges an annual interest rate of 10%. All the farming plots in that village are rectangular, with areas varying between a minimum of 1000 square meters and a maximum of 10,000 square meters.
This year, Brijbhushan has lent money only to five farmers: Aditya, Binod, Chhuttan, Dabloo and Govind. The perimeter of Chhuttan’s plot is 250 meters, with the length and width being at a ratio of 4:1. Aditya’s plot has an area three times the area of Govind’s plot. The area of Aditya’s plot is also the average of the areas of Govind’s plot and Dabloo’s plot. The plots belonging to Aditya, Binod and Dabloo are of the same width, but of different lengths. Moreover, the length of Binod’s plot is the sum of the lengths of Aditya’s plot and Dabloo’s plot.- XAT - 2026
- Mensuration
Light Chemicals is an industrial paint supplier with presence in three locations: Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The sunburst chart below shows the distribution of the number of employees of different departments of Light Chemicals. There are four departments: Finance, IT, HR and Sales. The employees are deployed in four ranks: junior, mid, senior and executive. The chart shows four levels: location, department, rank and gender (M: male, F: female). At every level, the number of employees at a location/department/rank/gender are proportional to the corresponding area of the region represented in the chart.
Due to some issues with the software, the data on junior female employees have gone missing. Notice that there are junior female employees in Mumbai HR, Sales and IT departments, Hyderabad HR department, and Bengaluru IT and Finance departments. The corresponding missing numbers are marked u, v, w, x, y and z in the diagram, respectively.
It is also known that:
a) Light Chemicals has a total of 210 junior employees.
b) Light Chemicals has a total of 146 employees in the IT department.
c) Light Chemicals has a total of 777 employees in the Hyderabad office.
d) In the Mumbai office, the number of female employees is 55.
- XAT - 2026
- Pie Charts
An investment company, Win Lose, recruit's employees to trade in the share market. For newcomers, they have a one-year probation period. During this period, the employees are given Rs. 1 lakh per month to invest the way they see fit. They are evaluated at the end of every month, using the following criteria:
1. If the total loss in any span of three consecutive months exceeds Rs. 20,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 3-month period,
2. If the total loss in any span of six consecutive months exceeds Rs. 10,000, their services are terminated at the end of that 6-month period.
Further, at the end of the 12-month probation period, if there are losses on their overall investment, their services are terminated.
Ratan, Shri, Tamal and Upanshu started working for Win Lose in January. Ratan was terminated after 4 months, Shri was terminated after 7 months, Tamal was terminated after 10 months, while Upanshu was not terminated even after 12 months. The table below, partially, lists their monthly profits (in Rs. ‘000’) over the 12-month period, where x, y and z are masked information.
Note:
• A negative profit value indicates a loss.
• The value in any cell is an integer.
Illustration: As Upanshu is continuing after March, that means his total profit during January-March (2z +2z +0) ≥
Rs.20,000. Similarly, as he is continuing after June, his total profit during January − June ≥
Rs.10,000, as well as his total profit during April-June ≥ Rs.10,000.
- XAT - 2026
- Logical and Analytical Reasoning Skills
Business schools’ (B schools) curriculums are filled with group assignments and case competitions. Even when students have just joined the B schools, corporate houses try 38 to catch good talent early by promising them internships based on case competitions. These competitions involve solving the problems presented by the organizations, analyzing the challenges they currently face, and presenting solutions in a manner that convinces the organizations’ representatives.
For students who are just joining a B school, the capability to actually solve such problems is quite limited. Because of that, the corporate houses generally are more focused on the presentations made by groups. Hence, the groups that communicate better, most often, win these competitions.
Abirami joins MBS, a B school. As a fresher, she believes she needs to learn a lot about how organizations work and wants to work with others who have joined MBS and have work experience.- XAT - 2026
- Statements and Assumptions