Low status groups’s positive social identity is more challenging to attain than for their higher status counterparts. For instance, they tend to perceive themselves as lower in relative ingroup prototypicality within a more inclusive superordinate category. However, we propose that when the group membership is based on strong beliefs (e.g. religious), status is less used as a prototypicality cue and the superiority of the belief becomes the source of high relative ingroup prototypicality, to the point of claim higher prototypicality than they attribute to the higher-status majority. In two quasi-experiments manipulating information processing, we predicted and found that religious lower-status minority members (Evangelical-Protestants) perceived their prototypicality as Christians in Portugal (superordinate category) higher than the majority (Catholics) (Study 1, N=97), only when a belief-related (Christians in Portugal) versus belief-unrelated (Portuguese) superordinate category was made salient (Study 2, N=99). In both studies, status was equally low across conditions. Also, the effects were moderated (weakened) under accuracy motivation, which suggests that religious low-status minorities might use belief-related representations as heuristic prototypicality cues, lessening the role of status usually found in minorities’ prototypicality perceptions.

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