Competitive victimhood: a review of the theoretical and empirical literature

Young, Isaac F.; Sullivan, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.04.004

Cited by 73 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Note that this may imply actual deprivation (Irwin & Katz, 2016), but does not require it. Instead, it may be relative deprivation (Pettigrew, 2017) and driven by processes such as competitive victimhood (Young & Sullivan, 2016). Also note that Trump's campaign itself contributed to the construction of this worldview (Reicher & Haslam, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Touching the base: heart-warming ads from the 2016 U.S. election moved viewers to partisan tears

Seibt

Schubert

Zickfeld

et al. 2018

Cognition and Emotion

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Some political ads used in the 2016 U.S. election evoked feelings colloquially known as being moved to tears. We conceptualise this phenomenon as a positive social emotion that appraises and motivates communal relations, is accompanied by physical sensations (including lachrymation, piloerection, chest warmth), and often labelled metaphorically. We surveyed U.S. voters in the fortnight before the 2016 U.S. election. Selected ads evoked the emotion completely and reliably, but in a partisan fashion: Clinton voters were moved to tears by three selected Clinton ads, and Trump voters were moved to tears by two Trump ads. Viewers were much less moved by ads of the candidate they did not support. Being moved to tears predicted intention to vote for the candidate depicted. We conclude that some contemporary political advertising is able to move its audience to tears, and thereby motivates support.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Touching the base: heart-warming ads from the 2016 U.S. election moved viewers to partisan tears

Seibt

Schubert

Zickfeld

et al. 2018

Cognition and Emotion

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show abstract

“…Our study also takes a first step in addressing the lacuna, identified by Young and Sullivan (), pertaining to the relations between competitive victimhood and struggle over realistic and symbolic resources. In both studies, we found that competitive victimhood among disadvantaged groups predicts support for both types of policies, and opposition to both types of policies among advantaged groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To illustrate, in the New Zealand context, replacing Crown ownership with Maori ownership of the foreshore and seabed represents the first type of policies, whereas singing the national anthem in both Maori and English represents the second (Sibley & Duckitt, ). That the relation between competitive victimhood and support for the two types of policies has not been studied yet has been recently identified as a critical gap in literature (Young & Sullivan, ). Our study makes an initial step towards closing this gap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power matters: The role of power and morality needs in competitive victimhood among advantaged and disadvantaged groups

Kahalon

Shnabel

Halabi

et al. 2018

British J Social Psychol

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Competitive victimhood denotes group members' efforts to establish that their ingroup has suffered greater injustice than an adversarial outgroup. Previous research in contexts of structural inequality has stressed the role of the need to defend the ingroup's moral identity, rather than the need for power, in leading advantaged and disadvantaged group members to engage in competitive victimhood. Focusing on the structural inequality between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel (Study 1) and Israeli women and men (Study 2), we found that across all groups and contexts, power needs predicted competitive victimhood. Also, the need to protect the ingroup's moral reputation (i.e., defensive moral needs) positively predicted competitive victimhood, whereas among advantaged group members, the need to protect the ingroup's moral essence negatively predicted competitive victimhood. Finally, exploratory analyses revealed that competitive victimhood correlated, positively for advantaged and negatively for disadvantaged group members, with support for policies securing realistic and symbolic resources for the disadvantaged group. Theoretical and practical implications of these results, which are consistent with the logic of the needs-based model of reconciliation, are discussed.

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“…People are motivated to maintain a positive image of their group--one that depicts them as triumphing over adversity, not handed their accomplishment illegitimately (Young & Sullivan, 2016). Thus, one possible strategy to mitigate reminders of privilege is to affirm people's hardships in other domains.…”

Section: Attenuating Defensiveness Through Self-affirmationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reminders of ingroup privilege often threaten identity but rarely change beliefs

Puryear¹,

Lm²,

Lawler³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Despite progress over the past century, social inequality remains pervasive in the United States. One approach for addressing inequality is persuading members of high-status groups that their status is partly a product of privilege––that is, unearned advantages that are shared by most members of their group. However, telling people that the accomplishments of their group are not fully earned often elicits defensiveness. Acknowledging ingroup privileges can threaten ingroup identity, raising concerns that attempts to raise awareness of group-based advantages can backfire, making people less supportive of equality efforts. Two studies (N = 773) test the effects of exercises intended to raise privilege awareness. In Study 1, men completed checklists describing privileges men have relative to women. In Study 2, White people completed checklists describing White privileges and received feedback informing them of their privilege. People who acknowledge inequity felt guilt and gratitude after text-based privilege exercises, while people who deny inequity felt threatened by them. However, we find weak and inconsistent evidence that privilege awareness polarizes attitudes about race, gender, and social policy. While privilege awareness activities often appear to evoke defensiveness, they do not consistently polarize attitudes or backfire against their intended goals.

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Competitive victimhood: a review of the theoretical and empirical literature

Cited by 73 publications

References 34 publications

Touching the base: heart-warming ads from the 2016 U.S. election moved viewers to partisan tears

Touching the base: heart-warming ads from the 2016 U.S. election moved viewers to partisan tears

Power matters: The role of power and morality needs in competitive victimhood among advantaged and disadvantaged groups

Reminders of ingroup privilege often threaten identity but rarely change beliefs

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