The impact of collective self-esteem on intergroup evaluation: self-protection and self-enhancement

The present study examines the impact of personal success or failure feedback on collective self-esteem & bias. The second corollary of the self-esteem hypothesis -- that low or threatened self-esteem will motivate intergroup discrimination & Crocker & Luhtanen's (1990) self-enhancement hypothesis were examined. Collective self-esteem was affected by status, &, contrary to the second corollary of the self-esteem hypothesis, participants with high collective self-esteem were found to show more ingroup bias (c.f. Abrams & Hogg 1988). However, status & self-esteem had interactive effects on evaluations of the ingroup & outgroup. High self-esteem was associated with more positive ingroup evaluations only when the ingroup had high status, whereas low self-esteem was associated with more positive outgroup evaluations only when the ingroup had low status. Results are discussed in terms of Crocker & Luhtanen's (1990) self-enhancement hypothesis. Adapted from the source document.