Abstract
Collective victimhood is the belief that one’s own group has been intentionally and undeservingly harmed by another group (Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori, & Gundar, 2009). While previous research has established the link between collective victimhood and negative intergroup behaviors, the underlying mechanism is virtually unexplored. In the current study, we test the idea that intergroup emotions play an important role, particularly for those group members who are highly identified. Whereas previous research has primarily studied collective victimhood in violent contexts, the current study focuses on its role in the intergroup relations in Belgium, known as a non-violent conflict between French and Dutch speakers.The associations between collective victimhood, intergroup emotions, and action tendencies were studied in an online survey. The sample consisted of both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking Belgians (Ntotal = 1774). Structural equation modeling showed that collective victimhood was negatively related to intergroup affiliative emotions (i.e., sympathy) and positively to intergroup distancing emotions (i.e., anger). In addition, these relationships were stronger for participants who strongly identified with their ingroup. Furthermore, intergroup affiliative emotions positively predicted fostering contact with outgroup members, and negatively predicted the tendencies to exclude and take revenge on the outgroup; intergroup distancing emotions positively predicted outgroup exclusion and revenge, and negatively predicted fostering contact with them. The established associations were no different between the linguistic groups. Our results confirm that collective victimhood, and the emotions associated, can help to understand intergroup conflict in non-violent contexts, in addition to violent ones.
Highlights
Collective victimhood – the belief that one’s own group has been intentionally and undeservingly harmed by another group (Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori, & Gundar, 2009; Vollhardt, 2012) – is known to intensify negative intergroup behaviors
In our structural equation models, we investigated the relationships between collective victimhood/ingroup identification and intergroup emotions on the one hand and between intergroup emotions and tendencies towards outgroup members on the other
The very slight decrease in Comparative Fit Index (CFI) (∆CFI = –.009, which is below the conventional cut-off of –.010) and the decrease in Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) (∆RMSEA = –0.015, which is below the conventional limit of .015), suggest that restriction of the model did not result in worse fit
Summary
Collective victimhood – the belief that one’s own group has been intentionally and undeservingly harmed by another group (Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori, & Gundar, 2009; Vollhardt, 2012) – is known to intensify negative intergroup behaviors In violent conflicts, such as those in NorthernIreland, Rwanda or Kosovo, perceived collective victimhood has been associated with mistrust of outgroup members, failure to forgive them for their past wrongdoings, and exclusion, which in turn are likely to contribute to the negative spiral of intergroup conflict (Andrighetto, Mari, Volpato, & Behluli, 2012; Noor, Brown, Gonzalez, Manzi, & Lewis, 2008; Vollhardt & Bilali, 2015). At the level of the group, structural violence may harm social cohesion, harmony and integration into a society
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