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Individuals who perform well within an unsuccessful group have more favorable reactions than equally capable individuals who perform poorly within a successful group. This frog-pond effect appears to occur because people focus on their relative performance standing within their group rather than on their group's overall performance level. It was hypothesized that this effect would be attenuated among people who value their social groups highly because they should be more likely selves. Four studies supported this reasoning. The frog-pond effect was strongest among individuals with lower collective self-esteem, an individualistic cultural heritage, or a weaker bond toward a particular social group
McFarland et al. (Thu,) studied this question.