Exclusion As Self-Protection: the Function of Subtypes for Ingroup Members

Three studies examined the consequences of subtyping ingroup members for evaluations of the self. the first study examined the impact of subtyping high-performing or low-performing ingroup members on self-evaluations. study 2 employed an alternative manipulation of subtyping. given the observed benefits of subtyping low-performing ingroup members for the group and the benefits of subtyping high-performing ingroup members for the self,study 3 investigated participants' subtyping target selection (i.e.,high-performing vs. low-performing ingroup members) when the focus of the sorting task was on self-evaluations or group evaluations. in sum,these studies suggest that subtyping ingroup members can serve a self-protective function. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.