Experimentally manipulated high in-group status can buffer personal self-esteem against discrimination

We present an experiment in which the relative status of an in-group and the discriminatory nature of a decision maker's intergroup behaviour (in-group-favouring/out-group-favouring/even-handed) were independently manipulated to observe their effects on self-esteem. Adopting a Social Identity Theory framework, and following from previous empirical work, we predicted that discrimination against one's in-group would lead to lower self-esteem among members of a low-status group but not among members of a high-status group. This prediction was confirmed.