ABSTRACT
It is almost a truism to say that life is relative—that our experiences and judgments of people, things, and events occur against the backdrop of some comparative standard or frame of reference. My claims that “I'm hungry” or “my daughter is brilliant” or “that haircut is ghastly” are all made with reference to some standard. Indeed, in communicating these things, I assume that you have at least some notion of the standards I have in mind—the contextual background—and can interpret my claims accordingly. Thus, you can pretty readily assume that my hunger level does not require medical attention, that my 5-year-old's brilliance does not qualify her for early admission to an Ivy League school, and that the haircut is unlikely to frighten away small children and animals. Note that this occurs even though the judgment appears absolute—“she's brilliant!”—for such statements imply more x (more brilliance) than others, and they are therefore inherently comparative (Huttenlocher & Higgins, 1971).
