A second explanation is based on social comparison processes. Like the reflected appraisals theory, a social comparison approach might be used to generate the prediction that ethnic minorities (e.g., African Americans) will have lower self-esteem than the ethnic majority (e.g., Whites) because of cross-group social comparisons (see Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000). For example, if African Americans, on average, are more disadvantaged and they compare themselves to Whites who, on average, are more advantaged, then African Americans will report lower levels of self-esteem. As noted above, this prediction is not empirically supported. An alternative possibility is that social comparisons are made within one’s own ethnic group (e.g., Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000; Rosenberg, 1979), in which case African Americans would compare themselves to other African Americans and likely have just as many opportunities to make downward social comparisons as members of more advantaged groups.