Abstract
Much of the work that has shown that intergroup discrimination may lead to elevated collective self-esteem (CSE) contains features that, in essential respects, preclude an accurate investigation of predictions derived from social identity theory (SIT). Typically, these studies have tended to incorporate measures that assess global, trait, and private CSE. To overcome these problems, the present investigation included category-specific, state measures of membership, private, identity, and public CSE. Three studies reveal that while there was some evidence to indicate that membership, private, and public CSE are sometimes affected by various forms of intergroup discrimination, only identity CSE (IDCSE) was consistently associated with discrimination. That is, when group members (i.e., Christians, New Zealanders, and men) show distinct forms of discrimination, they experience increasing levels of state, category-specific IDCSE, which was subsequently found to be positively associated with each form of intergroup discrimination. Based on these findings, the IDCSE may provide a particularly useful measure of state-dependent category-specific social identity related to intergroup discrimination.