The big-fish–little-pond effect (BFLPE) is a frame of reference model introduced by Herbert W. Marsh and John W. Parker in 1984.
[3] Malcolm Gladwell publicized the BFLPE in his 2013 book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.
[4][5] Liem, Marsh, Martin, McInerney, and Yeung (2004) showed that positive academic self concepts were associated with better educational outcomes 10 years later—evidence that ASC can have long lasting effects.
According to Schwarz and Bless's (1992) inclusion/exclusion model of judgment, assimilation effects occur when the target of comparison is included in the mental representation of the self or viewed as similar to the self.
[6][7] Conversely, contrast effects occur when the target of comparison is excluded from the mental representation of the self or viewed as distinct from the self.
Students who are higher in narcissism or lower in neuroticism experienced a weaker BFLPE on their math self-concept.
[8] Jonkmann (2013) also found that students who are engaged academically experience stronger BFLPE, regardless of whether they were mastery or performance oriented.
The BFLPE is typically more pronounced for students who are more intelligent, who are more highly anxious, who have a cooperative orientation, or who use memorization as a learning strategy.
[14] Several classroom practices were explored as possible moderators of the BFLPE, including the use of individualized assessment tasks, criterion and self-referenced feedback, and reinforcement of peer identification.
Chang and Lam (2007) manipulated students so that they were either in direct competition with each other or working together in groups to accomplish a common task.
It is argued that this is because in high school, academic tracking leads to breaking up students into classes ranked on competency.
The results of the experiment supported Kemmelmeier and Oyserman's hypothesis, demonstrating that self-construal moderates social comparison effects like the BFLPE.
This result was replicated in students with mild intellectual disability attending segregated and non-segregated schools.
[18] The BFLPE has been intensely studied across different countries, cultural contexts, and school systems, and it appears to be generalizable across each.
[19] The countries were: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
Seaton, Marsh, and Craven (2009) expanded this list to 41 countries, including both collectivist and individualist cultures.
[3] Marsh and O'Mara (2008) demonstrated that once within a stable educational setting, BFLPEs persist or even increase over time.
[3] However, Becker and Neumann (2016) showed that ASC in the senior year of high school had a significant effect on academic adjustment to and success in higher education.
[3] The degree of availability of comparison information influenced the visibility of BFLPEs in different school system structures.
Marsh, Morin, and Parker (2015) demonstrated that the BFLPE exists with regard to physical concept.
Marsh (2016) was the first to provide empirical support for the RYiSE as analogous to the BFLPE, based on the same underlying social comparison theory and frame-of-reference effects.