As humans, we often enjoy comparing ourselves to others. “I wish I had his job” or “I wonder how many square feet their house is.” Probably a day doesn’t go by that we don’t compare ourselves in some way to another person or group of people. It’s how we measure ourselves, especially in the workplace.
But are we happier for it? The research suggests otherwise. Several studies strongly point to the fact that happy people are less sensitive to feedback about other people’s performances.
For example, happy students did not change their judgments of how good they were at a particular task even in the presence of someone who did the task better, but unhappy participants did diminish their own skills.
In another study, happy students reported more positive emotions when told that their performance was excellent (even when a peer had done even better) than when told that their performance was poor (even when a peer had done even worse). Unhappy people — on the other hand — reported more positive emotions after receiving a negative expert evaluation (accompanied by news that a peer had done even worse) than after receiving a positive expert evaluation (accompanied by news that a peer had done even better).
Source: The Promise of Sustainable Happiness by Julia K. Boehm and Sonja Lyubomirsky