Effects of intergroup and interpersonal context, and individuals’ appraisal of their in-group on the intragroup comparison process

The present study examined whether individuals’ endorsement of intergroup context moderates the social comparison process not only in the intergroup upward comparison condition, but also in the downward comparison condition, by experimentally manipulating the direction of intergroup comparison and interpersonal comparison for participants who appraise their in-group as high or low. As predicted, participants who appraise their in-group as high showed reflection processes in the intergroup upward comparison condition, but comparison processes in the intergroup downward comparison condition because of their endorsement of their in-group position. In contrast, participants who appraised their in-group as low showed comparison processes in the intergroup upward comparison condition, but reflection processes in the intergroup downward comparison condition. These results imply that the interplay between intergroup context and individuals’ internal factors affect intragroup comparison processes.