Social Identity versus Personal Identity: An Investigation into the Interaction of group and Personal Status with Collective Self-Esteem on Ingroup Favouritism

Abstract

German

In this study the authors investigated the effects of three independent variables, personal status (high, low, neutral), group status (high, low, neutral) and private collective self-esteem (CSE), on three dependent variables: ingroup favouritism, self-favouritism, and the difference between these two measures — ‘self versus ingroup favouritism’. Personal and group status were manipulated by providing bogus test feedback to 225 school children aged between 13–15 years. It was found that subjects with high CSE showed greater ingroup relative to self-favouritism (‘self vs ingroup favouritism’) than subjects with low CSE but only when group status was neutral or high. When group status was low there was little difference between high and low CSE subjects. A second study on the validity of private collective self-esteem found that it was moderately correlated with Jewish identification, and not correlated with subtle racism.

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