Collective self-esteem predicts the extent to which low-status group members favor a high-status outgroup

Abstract

It remains unclear whether low-status group members show favoritism toward a high-status outgroup. To answer this question, the present study divided 180 senior high school students into different three-person groups using the minimal intergroup paradigm. Each group was required to solve a problem together and then was informed that they had performed either well (high-status) or poorly (low-status). Next, the psychological distance to the ingroups and outgroups and collective self-esteem of each participant were measured. Members from high-status groups consistently reported a closer psychological distance to the ingroup than the outgroup (ingroup bias), whereas members from the low-status groups exhibited a reverse pattern; i.e., they reported a closer psychological distance to the high-status outgroup than the ingroup (outgroup bias). Moreover, collective self-esteem positively predicted the extent of outgroup bias such that ingroup members with higher collective self-esteem were less tolerable to the low status of their ingroup. In conclusion, the preference for high status triumphed the preference for ingroup in low-status group members, and collective self-esteem may be an important individual difference that predicted the extent of favoring high-status outgroups.