Impact des comparaisons ascendantes et descendantes sur l'estime de soi : importance de l'identité mise enjeu

Résumé En Fr

Summary : Impact of upward and downward social comparisons on self-esteem : Importance of activated identity. It has been argued that upward comparison with members of an ingroup can be both enhancing and threatening to self-esteem. We propose that the superior performance of ingroup members on ability domains, that are relevant to self-esteem, will be enhancing if the group is threatened on such domains. However, this self-protective strategy should be available only via ingroup identification. We tested this hypothesis with women exposed in a threatening domain to either upward or downward comparison information about the performance of a woman or a man. Our results show a positive effect on self-esteem of downward comparisons regardless of the membership of the comparison target. However, upward comparisons with men were harmful for women's self-esteem whereas upward comparisons with women were not. The latter protected self-esteem via ingroup identification. Indeed, when upward comparisons occurred in a threatening domain, the effect of the target's group membership on self-esteem was mediated through ingroup identification. A second experiment tested the contextual or chronic nature of this self-protective strategy. Women were exposed to either downward or upward comparison information about the performance of a man or a woman but in a context that made their personal identity salient. There was a main effect of comparison direction : downward comparisons had a positive effect on self-esteem whereas upward comparisons had a negative one. The potentially beneficial role of ingroup comparisons in an intergroup context is discussed. Key words : intergroup identification, personal identity, self-esteem, social identity, social comparison.

L'objectif dans cette recherche est de montrer le rôle du groupe dans la protection de l'estime de soi face à des comparaisons ascendantes. Dans la première expérience réalisée sur des femmes dans un contexte intergroupe menaçant pour leur identité sociale, les participantes présentent une plus faible estime de soi quand elles se comparent avec un homme plutôt qu'avec une autre femme. Dans ce dernier cas, l'identification au groupe des femmes permet aux participantes de bénéficier par assimilation de la réussite des membres de leur groupe. La seconde recherche permet de montrer que cette stratégie de protection de l'estime de soi n'est pas disponible dans un contexte de comparaisons interpersonnelles. Mots-clés : comparaison sociale, estime de soi, identification groupale, identité sociale, identité personnelle.