Victimhood: The Most Powerful Force in Morality and Politics

Abstract

Victimhood drives morality and politics. Morality evolved to protect from victimization, and today morality still revolves around concerns about victimhood and harm. Unfortunately, liberals and conservatives often identify different victims, creating political division. In this review of the psychology of perceived victimhood, we demonstrate its power and complexity. First, we look at evolution to explore why victimhood is so powerful, highlighting one neglected fact about human nature: humans are more prey than predator. Second, we examine three different definitions of what victimhood is based on understandings of individuals, groups, and morality, and how these definitions of victimhood can set the stage for conflict. Third, we explore how victimhood matters in judgments of others. It forms the core of moral judgments: people condemn acts based on how much these acts seem to victimize others. People also typecast others as victims or victimizers. Fourth, we review when people see themselves as a victim, and how this licenses selfishness. Finally, we show how victimhood inflames moral and political division, but also how it can bridge divides through sharing and acknowledging experiences of suffering.

U.S. citizens’ judgments of moral transgressions against fellow citizens, refugees, and undocumented immigrants.

“…The evidence regarding vulnerability, perceived welfare, and sympathy toward the victim groups as a relevant feature in assessments of moral transgressions is consistent with several existing theoretical perspectives. Some recent discussions locate perceptions of harm as a core component of morality (Gray et al, 2022;Gray & Kubin, 2024;Schein & Gray, 2018); insofar vulnerability implies a greater impact for perceived harm, our findings are consistent with this perspective. Additionally, work exploring the stereotype content model (Cuddy et al, 2008;Fiske et al, 2018) has found that refugees and immigrants are in many contexts ascribed both low warmth and low competence (Eckes, 2002;Kotzur et al, 2019;Lee & Fiske, 2006).…”

U.S. citizens’ judgments of moral transgressions against fellow citizens, refugees, and undocumented immigrants.

“…The evidence regarding vulnerability, perceived welfare, and sympathy toward the victim groups as a relevant feature in assessments of moral transgressions is consistent with several existing theoretical perspectives. Some recent discussions locate perceptions of harm as a core component of morality (Gray et al, 2022;Gray & Kubin, 2024;Schein & Gray, 2018); insofar vulnerability implies a greater impact for perceived harm, our findings are consistent with this perspective. Additionally, work exploring the stereotype content model (Cuddy et al, 2008;Fiske et al, 2018) has found that refugees and immigrants are in many contexts ascribed both low warmth and low competence (Eckes, 2002;Kotzur et al, 2019;Lee & Fiske, 2006).…”

Victimhood claims in German political manifestos

“…First, we created coding instructions to identify victimhood claims in the extracted text passages. Drawing on the conceptualization of victimhood introduced before, a victimhood claim contains two integral components: injustice (i.e., a claim of unjust victimization; Gray & Kubin, 2024) and in-group relevance (i.e., the in-group is affected by the unjust victimization). As election and party programs target German citizens who have the right to vote in the Federal Election, we defined the in-group as all potential Germans and their kin.…”

“…In other words, victimization refers to the application of a "moral template" to a specific experience or episode-a cognitive framework in which a "moral agent" is perceived to have harmed a "moral patient," thereby violating a moral norm (Schein & Gray, 2018). Thus, a moral template follows the structure "X harmed Y," where Y is construed as undeserving of harm and X is held morally responsible (Gray & Kubin, 2024). For instance, applying a moral template to receiving a tax assessment would result in something like "The state steals my money" and would, thus, be perceived as a victimization.…”

Moral Language and Political Polarisation: An Overview

“…This perspective argues that the purity foundation in particular is too broad to be a singular construct (Gray et al 2022) and irrelevant to real-life moral concerns (Gray and Keeney 2015). Dyadic morality proposes that rather than endorsing different moral foundations, liberals and conservatives have different concepts of victimhood and what entities are vulnerable to harm (Gray and Kubin 2024). They propose that liberals amplify victimhood-focusing on what groups are more likely to be vulnerable to harm-while conservatives are more focused on individual victimhood.…”

U.S. citizens’ judgments of moral transgressions against fellow citizens, refugees, and undocumented immigrants.

“…The evidence regarding vulnerability, perceived welfare, and sympathy toward the victim groups as a relevant feature in assessments of moral transgressions is consistent with several existing theoretical perspectives. Some recent discussions locate perceptions of harm as a core component of morality (Gray et al, 2022;Gray & Kubin, 2024;Schein & Gray, 2018); insofar vulnerability implies a greater impact for perceived harm, our findings are consistent with this perspective. Additionally, work exploring the stereotype content model (Cuddy et al, 2008;Fiske et al, 2018) has found that refugees and immigrants are in many contexts ascribed both low warmth and low competence (Eckes, 2002;Kotzur et al, 2019;Lee & Fiske, 2006).…”

Victimhood claims in German political manifestos

“…First, we created coding instructions to identify victimhood claims in the extracted text passages. Drawing on the conceptualization of victimhood introduced before, a victimhood claim contains two integral components: injustice (i.e., a claim of unjust victimization; Gray & Kubin, 2024) and in-group relevance (i.e., the in-group is affected by the unjust victimization). As election and party programs target German citizens who have the right to vote in the Federal Election, we defined the in-group as all potential Germans and their kin.…”

“…In other words, victimization refers to the application of a "moral template" to a specific experience or episode-a cognitive framework in which a "moral agent" is perceived to have harmed a "moral patient," thereby violating a moral norm (Schein & Gray, 2018). Thus, a moral template follows the structure "X harmed Y," where Y is construed as undeserving of harm and X is held morally responsible (Gray & Kubin, 2024). For instance, applying a moral template to receiving a tax assessment would result in something like "The state steals my money" and would, thus, be perceived as a victimization.…”

Moral Language and Political Polarisation: An Overview

“…This perspective argues that the purity foundation in particular is too broad to be a singular construct (Gray et al 2022) and irrelevant to real-life moral concerns (Gray and Keeney 2015). Dyadic morality proposes that rather than endorsing different moral foundations, liberals and conservatives have different concepts of victimhood and what entities are vulnerable to harm (Gray and Kubin 2024). They propose that liberals amplify victimhood-focusing on what groups are more likely to be vulnerable to harm-while conservatives are more focused on individual victimhood.…”

U.S. citizens’ judgments of moral transgressions against fellow citizens, refugees, and undocumented immigrants.

“…The evidence regarding vulnerability, perceived welfare, and sympathy toward the victim groups as a relevant feature in assessments of moral transgressions is consistent with several existing theoretical perspectives. Some recent discussions locate perceptions of harm as a core component of morality (Gray et al, 2022;Gray & Kubin, 2024;Schein & Gray, 2018); insofar vulnerability implies a greater impact for perceived harm, our findings are consistent with this perspective. Additionally, work exploring the stereotype content model (Cuddy et al, 2008;Fiske et al, 2018) has found that refugees and immigrants are in many contexts ascribed both low warmth and low competence (Eckes, 2002;Kotzur et al, 2019;Lee & Fiske, 2006).…”

Victimhood claims in German political manifestos

“…First, we created coding instructions to identify victimhood claims in the extracted text passages. Drawing on the conceptualization of victimhood introduced before, a victimhood claim contains two integral components: injustice (i.e., a claim of unjust victimization; Gray & Kubin, 2024) and in-group relevance (i.e., the in-group is affected by the unjust victimization). As election and party programs target German citizens who have the right to vote in the Federal Election, we defined the in-group as all potential Germans and their kin.…”

“…In other words, victimization refers to the application of a "moral template" to a specific experience or episode-a cognitive framework in which a "moral agent" is perceived to have harmed a "moral patient," thereby violating a moral norm (Schein & Gray, 2018). Thus, a moral template follows the structure "X harmed Y," where Y is construed as undeserving of harm and X is held morally responsible (Gray & Kubin, 2024). For instance, applying a moral template to receiving a tax assessment would result in something like "The state steals my money" and would, thus, be perceived as a victimization.…”

Moral Language and Political Polarisation: An Overview

“…This perspective argues that the purity foundation in particular is too broad to be a singular construct (Gray et al 2022) and irrelevant to real-life moral concerns (Gray and Keeney 2015). Dyadic morality proposes that rather than endorsing different moral foundations, liberals and conservatives have different concepts of victimhood and what entities are vulnerable to harm (Gray and Kubin 2024). They propose that liberals amplify victimhood-focusing on what groups are more likely to be vulnerable to harm-while conservatives are more focused on individual victimhood.…”