Shifting social identities as a strategy for deflecting threatening socialcomparisons

Results of three studies suggest that the multifaceted nature of identity p rovides a strategic basis for reducing the threat involved in upward social comparisons. After performing worse than a comparison standard, people may strategically emphasize aspects of their identity that differentiate them from the standard, thereby making the standard less relevant for self-evalu ation. On the basis of previous research showing that persons low in self-e steem are less likely to make effective use of self-protection strategics, we hypothesized that this strategy of deflecting the threat involved in upw ard comparison (i.e., decreasing perceived comparability by emphasizing an unshared social identity) would be used primarily by persons who are charac teristically high in self-esteem. This pattern was confirmed in three studi es. Moreover, use of the strategy was associated with relatively more posit ive affect following threatening upward comparisons.