Intergroup comparison primarily serves to confirm one’s own group’s superiority

Evidence

Religious group members, as well as group members in general, make intergroup comparisons in order to confirm their belief/attitude that their religion is superior to others. If memberships in collectives is a source of information about the social self, the individuals will then seek to evaluate the social self, as they do aspects of the personal self. Intergroup comparison is one way in which individuals will assess their group and understand the collective self. … Religious fundamentalists act in an extreme manner not only to separate themselves from others but also to reinforce their own beliefs (Herriot, 2009). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 913

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the reader’s prior Allport work on ingroup/outgroup comparison as self-esteem maintenance, and to herriotian accounts of fundamentalism separating to reinforce belief.
• QUESTION: The superiority claim is posited as confirmation-seeking — is this consistent with Festinger’s social comparison where groups select comparable (not maximally inferior) outgroups?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 913