Fear of Being Supplanted: Intergroup Competition Over Prototypicality and Identity Threats Within Social Movements

We investigated reactions to the emergence of supplanting subgroups among members of dominant subgroups of a social movement. Supplanting subgroups are ideologically and strategically distinct from dominant subgroups and attract social recognition from the general public; thus, they could be perceived as competitors for the status of the movement's prototypical subgroup. Across three experimental studies, we investigated reactions to supplanting subgroups in comparison to allied subgroups within the movement and ideologically opposing groups to the movement. Supplanting subgroups triggered less negative reactions than ideologically opposing groups but more than allied subgroups. Moreover, they triggered similar levels of symbolic and realistic threat and as much (Study 3) or more (Study 2) competition over prototypicality than ideologically opposing groups. Symbolic threat and competition over prototypicality mediated some of the effects of the type of group on intergroup relations. These findings suggest that, along with symbolic threat, competition over prototypicality can play an important role in shaping conflicts within social movements.