Why did you choose that person over me? Ingroup rejection and attributions to discrimination

The present research examined the attributions that people make when an individual rejects a member of his or her own group in favor of a member of an outgroup (i.e., ingroup rejection). Study 1 showed that Latinos rejected by an ingroup member (perpetrator) made more attributions to discrimination than Whites under similar circumstances. Study 2 showed that Latinos made more attributions to discrimination for ingroup rejection when the perpetrator was Latino as compared to when the perpetrator was White, whereas Whites' attributions to discrimination were relatively low regardless of perpetrator's ethnicity. Study 3 showed that priming loyalty norms increased attributions to discrimination among Latinos in response to ingroup rejection, but not in response to outgroup rejection. This research brings a new perspective to discrimination research by focusing on intragroup rejection and nonprototypical cases of discrimination.

► This research examines attributions to discrimination (ATD) after ingroup rejection.
► In Study 1, Latinos made more ATDs after ingroup rejection than Whites did.
► In Study 2, Latinos made more ATDs for Latino than White ingroup rejection.
► In Study 3, Latinos primed with loyalty made more ATDs than control after rejection.
► For low status groups, ingroup loyalty norms lead to ATDs after ingroup rejection.