Frog pond effect

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (January 2021)

The frog pond effect is the theory that individuals evaluate themselves as worse than they actually are when in a group of higher-performing individuals.^[1][2] This effect is a part of the wider social comparison theory. It relates to how individuals evaluate themselves based on comparisons to other people around them, and is generally due to upward comparisons toward people who are better than themselves.^[1]