Oh the humanity! Humanity-esteem and its social importance

Past research has examined the consequences of a favorable personal identity (i.e., personal self-esteem) and social identity (i.e., collective self-esteem), but has neglected the consequences of a favorable human identity (i.e., humanity-esteem). Two studies examined individual differences in humanity-esteem using a new measure of this construct, the Humanity-Esteem Scale. Results indicated that the measure is reliable, taps affective and cognitive reactions to humanity, and possesses strong convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, a third study utilized a manipulation of humanity-esteem to examine its effect on group differentiation. The results supported the notion that low humanity-esteem increases group differentiation. Thus, humanity-esteem is an important novel construct for understanding how humans regard and relate to one another.