Numerous studies have found that people respond more defensively to criticism made by out-group members than to criticism made by in-group members (this is known as the intergroup sensitivity effect, or ISE). Women attending a women's college participated in three experiments designed to identify moderators of the ISE. Consistent with predictions, the critic's group identity strongly predicted sensitivity to group-directed criticism (i.e., a large ISE) in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the critic's freedom to choose her group identity interacted with the critic's group identity to predict defensiveness, such that criticism delivered by in-group members (but not by out-group members) was seen as more constructive if the critic had freely chosen her group membership. Experiment 3 examined whether strength of in-group identity affected the ISE. Contrary to predictions, strength of in-group identity did not interact with group identity of the critic to predict defensiveness. These results demonstrate that group identity of a critic is the overriding determinant of sensitivity to group-directed criticism. The implications of these findings for the attributional account of the intergroup sensitivity effect are considered.