Downward comparison, prejudice, and evaluations of others: Effects of self-esteem and threat.

Abstract

In two studies, we explored the effects of trait self-esteem and threats to the self-concept on evaluations of others. In Study 1, subjects high, moderate, and low in self-esteem received either success, failure, or no feedback on a test and later evaluated three pairs of targets: in-groups and out-groups based on a minimal intergroup manipulation, those who scored above average and those who scored below average on the test, and themselves and the average college student. Study 2 explored the effects of self-esteem and threat on in-group favoritism in a real-world setting, campus sororities. Together, the results of these studies indicate that individuals high in self-esteem, but not those low in self-esteem, respond to threats to the self-concept by derogating out-groups relative to the in-group when the group boundaries have evaluative implications.

Is There an "I" in "Team"? The Role of the Self in Group-Serving Judgments.

“…Although some researchers have found that those with low (manipulated) self-esteem exhibit more group-serving judgments than individuals with higher self-esteem (e.g., Hogg & Sunderland, 1991), other studies have found the reverse pattern. Crocker, Thompson, McGraw, and Ingerman (1987) found that individuals with high trait self-esteem who had experienced a threat to the self made more group-serving judgments than had individuals with low trait self-esteem. More recently, social identity and selfcategorization theorists have examined factors that moderate the tendency to be group serving, such as commitment to the group and group self-esteem (Ellemers, Kortekaas, & Ouwerkerk, 1999).…”

How terrorism news reports increase prejudice against outgroups: A terror management account

“…Importantly, in conditions of threat, high self-esteem promotes rather than reduces prejudice (e.g., Aberson, Healy, & Romero, 2000;Crocker, Thompson, McGraw, & Ingerman, 1987). In contrast, TMT proposes that in conditions of a specific threat of death, high self-esteem reduces rather than promotes prejudice.…”

Terror management and cognitive-experiential self-theory: Evidence that terror management occurs in the experiential system.

“…Certainly other threats, such as economic pressures (see e.g., Sales, 1972Sales, , 1973 and especially threats to self-esteem, may, under certain circumstances, intensify intergroup bias (e.g., Cialdini & Richardson, 1980;Meindl & Lemer, 1984). However, under other circumstances, self-esteem threat has failed to increase intergroup bias (e.g., Hogg & Abrams, 1990;Crocker, Thompson, McGraw, & Ingerman, 1987;Meindl & Lerner, 1984).…”