Personal self-esteem and prejudice among ethnic majority and minority youth

The present paper reports upon the application of two main theoretical frameworks to the relationship between personal self-esteem and prejudice among both ethnic majority and minority youth. Ehrlich's (1973) principle of self-congruity and the principle of downward social comparison proposed by Wills (1981) were examined. In the first study, self-esteem was positively associated with prejudice among majority subjects, whereas among minority subjects a negative relation was found. Additionally, positive ingroup evaluation in combination with prejudice appeared among majority youth, whereas among minority youth ingroup evaluation and prejudice were correlated negatively. These results for the majority subjects are most in agreement with downward social comparison theory. In contrast, the results for the minority subjects are more in agreement with self-congruity theory. These findings were replicated in a second study where self-esteem was measured as a consequence of group evaluations. The results show that the relationship between self-esteem and prejudice is affected by existing social relations and group status. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.